Artemis always dreamed in fragments. Tiny little moments of a life that she would never live.
…She gripped her bow and took aim at the man who was holding her husband in a headlock, smirking like a maniac. "Who are you?"
"My name is Zoom," the man declared…
… "Mom?" Artemis cried, holding her mother's broken form tightly. "Mom, please wake up! Please!"…
… "I can't be the Flash, Artemis, I can't," Wally pleaded with her as he looked down at the costume that he carried in his hands.
"But you need to be," Artemis reminded him, voice soft…
…"WALLY!" She screamed, her voice breaking as her father held Wally tight in his grasp. Without a second thought, her arrow was loose, burying itself in her father's throat…
… "Will you look after the twins for me?" Iris asked, pale and thin with the illness. "If something happens to me. Now that Barry's gone…"
"Nothing's going to happen to you," Artemis promised, holding Iris's hand. "You're strong enough for this."…
… Zoom snapped his fingers, and Artemis screamed out in pain as she was thrown backwards, away from that monster. Her hands went to her stomach, trying to protect the twins…
… "My fault," Wally said, slumping against her. "I should have been there, I should have stopped him—" He was crying as they stood over the two little graves, which read JAIDEN AND IRIS WEST…
… "Aunty Artemis!" Don and Dawn wrapped their arms around her.
Artemis smiled at the ten year old twins, and hugged them tightly, ignoring the guilty part of her brain that wished that she was embracing her own twins. "I kept my promise Iris. I did," she whispered into their hair…
… "You need to do what needs to be done, Wally," Zoom said, gripping a civilian tightly, with a knife against the man's throat. "You need to stop 'playing nice,' and just cross the line already."
"I won't," Wally said grimly. "I made a promise. And I'm not going to break it for you, Zoom."
"You're a fool," Zoom said, shaking his head. "And you're going to force me to take further steps." He dropped the civilian to the ground, and moved towards Wally. Wally tried to run, but Zoom was faster. There was an awful noise that sounded like bone breaking as Zoom's hands grasped Wally's neck, and then Artemis's husband fell to the ground…
… "Oh, come on Artemis," Zoom mocked, smirking at her. "Do you really think you can do anything to hurt me?"
Artemis glared at him, crossbow raised. "I can try," she snarled. "You killed my husband, my children, and now you're trying to kill the kids I've sworn to protect."
"I'm only going to kill one of them," Zoom protested. "And you of course. The survivor will be the greatest hero ever. Tragedy makes a great hero, Artemis. I'd have thought you knew that."
"Doesn't mean I'm going to just let it happen," Artemis snarled, firing her crossbow.
Zoom was in front of her in instants, grabbing her throat, wrenching her crossbow out of her hand, and threw her to the ground. "Good-bye Artemis," he told her softly, smirking.
Artemis's vision was going blurry as the fake-speedster cut off her air supply. She had to move quickly. She thrust up her hand, revealing the hidden knife to Zoom, but only as she managed to sink it into his chest.
Zoom looked at her, eyes wide and red. "You're going to regret that," he hissed, thrusting his own knife into Artemis's stomach, just as he passed out next to her, and stopped breathing.
Zoom was dead…
…"Aunt Artemis?" Dawn asked softly, as the fourteen year old girl helped her cousin-by-marriage away from Zoom's body. Artemis clutched a hand over her bleeding stomach, feeling light headed already. "Are you going to be okay?"
"No honey," Artemis whispered softly. "I'm not."
"But you won, right?" Don demanded, anxious.
"I won," Artemis said quietly. "I did."
And then she fell to the ground, her eyes sinking shut…
Artemis opened her eyes. She was in her bed, in her bedroom, in her and Wally's house. Wally's arm was draped over her. She rolled over, facing her husband. Wally shifted ever so slightly, eyelids fluttering as he dreamed. She raised a hand and slowly traced his jaw line, smiling. It had all been a dream.
She pressed a kiss against Wally's cheek, and then disentangled herself from his arm as she got out of bed.
She moved silently through the halls of her house, heading towards the twins' bedroom.
The twins' bedrooms were sort of a joke for the entire Justice League. Jai and Irey were well loved by all of their honorary aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, and cousins, and it had become a competition between all of the heroes to see who could get the most memorabilia into their rooms. And thus Irey had a Superman bedspread, with Wonder Woman sheets, while Jai had a Batman quilt and Green Lantern sheets. An enormous action figure collection covered an entire shelf, and the walls and ceilings of the room were coated in posters, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Artemis smiled to herself as she glanced at the gigantic Flash family poster above Irey's bed, which featured Jay, Barry, Wally, and Bart, and the Arrow family one above Jai's, which had Ollie, Dinah, both Roys, Cissie, Mia, and even Artemis.
She entered the room, careful to tread lightly. They were her children, after all. She frowned as she noted that Jai had gone to sleep with his bow again. She blamed Roy for that. He was a bad influence on her son. She reached over and grabbed the bow, placing it on the floor lightly. Jai turned over in his sleep, tightly clutching the tiny little Nightwing plushie that Dick had given him.
Artemis leaned over and brushed a strand of bright red hair out of his face, pressing a kiss to his forehead as she did so. She then stepped over the Justice League chess set that Tim had given them, and did the same for Irey.
She glanced at the photographs on the dressing table, smiling as she looked at them. There was the one of her entire family—Arrows, Flashes, her mother, her sister, Lian, and the twins—the one of a delighted looking M'gann holding the two infant twins, the one of an eight year old Lian cheerfully supervising Don, Dawn, Irey and Jai in a tea party, the one of Dick, Jason, Tim, and the twins, the one of the Flash supporting a twin on each shoulder… and Artemis's personal favorite, and the newest, the one of her eager, cheerful nine-year olds trapping a squirming, protesting, furious Damian Wayne in a sandwich hug.
She left their room, careful not to trip over the rest of the twins' plushie collection— the Marvel family, Zatanna, and the Batfamily (minus Nightwing) were currently in battle against Mr. Potato Head and his evil army of Barbie Dolls, and Artemis had learned better than to disrupt her children's mighty battles of good and evil.
She closed the door behind her, and turned to face her mother.
"Artemis?" Paula Crock asked, looking at her daughter.
"Hey Mom," Artemis said, smiling. "Just couldn't sleep."
"Ah," Paula said, shoving a grey hair out of her face. "Bad dreams again?"
"Yes," Artemis admitted. "The same one."
Paula took Artemis's hand. "It's only a dream, Artemis. You shouldn't worry."
"I know," Artemis said. "But I do."
Paula pulled her daughter down for a tight hug. "Go back to bed, Artemis. I'll see you in the morning. We will all be here."