A/N: I had this one in my head and I started it yesterday, finished it today, and I'm already thinking about which song I want to do next. I just think this really defines what the difference is between her past life as an assassin and this life as a hero. So here's this chapter of "Who I Am".

Disclaimer: Don't own the song or the characters. So I don't own anything.

Stronger (Back on the Ground)

All I remember is that Robin was somewhere up in the rafters, Wally was zipping around and knocking people down, and Aqualad was in the middle of some fierce hand-to-hand combat with an attacker. So I'd decided to lend him a hand. I put an arrow against the string and shot it to try and help Kaldur out a little bit.

Instead, that arrow buzzed right between the two and hit an already problematic support beam. Right in a weak spot. It's one of those moments when you just think "Really? Seriously? What are the odds of that ever happening in a million years?"

The support beam crumbled down and ripped down a few rafters and other beams and then the whole ceiling was crashing down and-

I'm buried in an avalanche of steel and concrete.

I always knew I was going to die. I mean, we're all going to die eventually. I just didn't think I'd die today. Tomorrow, maybe. The next day, sure, why not? But you never wake up and think, "Hey, wait, what if I die today?"

One of my hands is pinned to the floor. I know I'm bleeding. I can feel it. I think something got jabbed through my palm. I'm not sure. I can't see it. It's too dark. There's one little tendril of light sneaking in and it's only enough to tell that it's daylight. Our mission started at around two A.M. and dawn is at about five so I've been under here for about two hours if the flight took half an hour and we were fighting for an approximate twenty minutes... I'm not sure.

My leg is on fire; not literally, but it feels like it. All I know is that it's sharp, raw pain that's shooting up my leg. It hurts like crazy, but it's kind of in the background now. I'm more worried about no one coming to find me. I haven't heard anything since I got trapped. It's been this eerie silence. Like prison. Cold stone walls, no windows, just cold, empty, lonely, cold, silent. Prison. Yes, I've been there. It's not a fun place.

I've only got two limbs I can move and even then they're still pinned down. I'm lucky I've just got a bunch of scrapes and bruises. Maybe a busted rib, but I've dealt with much worse. Being buried alive gives you a better chance than a bullet to the chest does, lemme tell ya.

I guess I just don't want to die alone.

Maybe I secretly crave human interaction and the love of friends and family that I've never had before. Maybe I want to know that my body'll be found and placed somewhere with a name and a marker instead of under a mountain of concrete. Maybe if I die here, I'll be forgotten and all the people I killed will be avenged.

Or I'll die here and be forgotten by everyone and everyone won't be avenged and I'll just be dead.

Life kind of sucks.

The light isn't getting any brighter. The silence is just getting creepier.

I wonder if anyone else is dead. I know Robin was up in the rafters. He might've fallen. Wally was- Well, I don't actually know where Wally was. He's a little too fast for me to tell. Kaldur, hopefully, got away alright. I don't know if I helped or if I killed him. And Meg and Superboy weren't even in the room, so I guess they're safe. Unless I brought the whole building down.

What are the odds of me hitting that exact point? Really? Seriously? I could've brought a whole building down with one shot from an arrow. God, this sucks.

Cold, deadly silence.

I'm contemplating singing.

I'm completely against the idea.

Do I scream for help? Is anyone alive? Does anyone want to look for me? What if I run out of air? What if no one looks for me? What if I rot here? I'm probably going to die, aren't I? Damn it.

I'm lucky I'm in a little cavity of the rubble. There's enough space for me to wiggle and move to a certain extent with my leg and hand pinned. But I'm not strong enough to move anything without full mobility and that won't happen unless I pull my hand out, but something's still stabbed into it. I don't want to pull my hand off. I won't cut it off either. I still need that. And my leg's stuck. I'm definitely not getting that out any time soon. Rocks are shifting all around me. I'm almost waiting for a cave-in. That'd suck. I think I'd rather die of lack of air. Rock avalanches aren't really my thing.

I'm thinking about things. There's a lot to think about, really. The future. The one that might not exist. My life. The people I've killed. My father. The things I've done. The way I wish it had all turned out. Maybe I could've had a family one day. That wasn't involved with assassins and superheroes.

Pipe-dreams.

"Artemis!"

The rocks shift heavily overhead. I swear, I'm going to get crushed. I swear, I'm going to die. Everything's just going to collapse on me and I'll be a bloody wreck when and if anyone finds me and this'll be my unmarked grave, no name, no date, just a goddamn body covered in nasty blood and-

"Wally?"

How did I completely miss that?

"Can you hear us?" calls Robin from wherever he is outside of the concrete and steel walls that serve as my prison. "Artemis, are you in there?"

"Get me out!" God, I just want out. I don't want to die. I don't want to die, not today, not yet, not yet. "I'm in here!" Maybe they can hear me. Can they hear me? What if I yell loude-

Megan. "She's in there!" And the rocks all around me started vibrating.

Shit shit shit shit, I'm gonna die.

A few rocks are pulled away and fresh air seeps in through new cracks and more sunlight is finding its way to me. I can see in front of my face now. I can see I'm sitting in a pool of my own blood. Everything is stained crimson.

I see fingers picking up a rock near my knee. I cringe away from the light. It hurts. A lot. And Superboy pulls away the massive stone to shed a little light into my cell. "Here," he says bluntly before reaching for another stone and heaving it away from me. Kaldur's pulling another rock away from my leg as Meg's trying to get them all from around me so the guys have room to work.

Robin's the first one on me, gauze in hand. "What's bleeding?" His eyes are serious and I can tell that he genuinely cares for my well-being, that he's trying to take care of me.

I think it's the first time someone's ever done that for me.

"My leg," I say with a little glance at the heavy stone that's still got my appendage pinned, "and my hand."

"Supes, Aqualad, over here." He flicks his finger at both rocks that I indicated and the older boys automatically pull them away at his command. They continue to work at the mountain of rubble with M'gann helping.

"What happened?" asks Wally, appearing practically out of nowhere to kneel by my side. "The whole building came down and we went to deal with Luthor and you weren't there."

"I'm kind of trapped, Flashboy," I snap, the retort at the end coming out as a gasp of pain as my hand is pulled out of the dirt by Robin so he can wrap it up and take care of it the way only he would know how. "I couldn't get out. My arrow took down the building, it was completely my fault." And I hated saying that, especially to him, of all people.

"It's a group effort," says Robin, never looking away from his work. Or at least his head didn't move. I couldn't see his eyes behind the domino mask. "You may have jacked it up, but you can't take the fall."

"We should've been helping Kal as much as you were trying to. No biggie." Wally was watching me with concerned eyes. I could see them through the holes in his mask. "It's a team effort. Not to mention the fact that we should've been here sooner for you."

Another gasp of pain escapes me as Robin's looking over my leg, poking and prodding at it almost curiously. He takes his sweet time in wrapping it up with the gauze. "You had a mission, I had my punishment. No problem." I'm trying to ignore how close he is to me. The pain in my leg is really helping with that distraction. "Did we get Luthor?"

"Do you thinkwe got Luthor?" came Superboy's snort of disgust.

"He escaped," sighs Miss Martian from her position where she's floating in the air, "like he always does. Just before anyone can catch him." Her voice is exasperated.

We've been trying to catch the damn guy for months now. He's a pain in our asses, so I get why even Megan's getting pissed off about it. I'm pissed too! Although I think Superboy's got it the worst: he really wants to impress Superman by catching Luthor.

Robin clears his throat and tapes off the gauze. It's already staunched with my blood, but it'll do for the ride back to Mount Justice. "Anyways, we're glad you're alive, and, you know, not dead."

"Yeah." Wally gingerly reaches out to take my hand. His other arm is curving to hold my legs so he can carry me back to the bioship. "It's a good thing you didn't get yourself killed."

I let out a little fake laugh. "Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?" I put my arms around his neck to hold on for the run. And for some reason, just knowing that I have these friends me feel stronger. Because people actually care about me for once. And it feels good.

A/N: Reviews are welcomed!

~Sky