The Lies That Bind Us

Eleven years ago

Artemis Crock sprinted quickly through the shadows of the abandoned oil refinery. The lead she'd acquired had been sketchy at best, but still strong enough to warrant Batman sending the Team to investigate and gather intel. The Dark Knight had long since learned that observe and report was rarely followed the way he intended, but the Team had earned the right to handle situations on their own, and their success was hard to argue with.

The archer never revealed her source, always keeping things like that close to the vest, but Robin surmised that just because she was a hero now, it didn't mean she still didn't have friends or associates who weren't; the mercenary Cheshire being case in point.

If the intel was good, this refinery might very well be the central distribution hub the Justice League had been searching for- for well over a year now. The newest version of Kobra-Venom was a deadly combination of neo-steroids, powerful designer drugs, and the Project Blockbuster formula Cadmus had created years ago. The resulting mix was three times stronger than its previous incarnations and permanent. Years earlier the Team had destroyed a similar facility on Santa Prisca, but it was just a matter of time before a new one popped up somewhere.

But to find one in New Jersey, a mere 183 miles from the Hall of Justice was pretty ballsy to say the least. Hiding in plain sight was sometimes the hardest place to find.

Something in Artemis had changed over the last two months. Her mother's death had left her distant and cold, much like the person Green Arrow had first introduced to a group of remarkable teenagers who resided within the depths of Mt. Justice. But whereas then she'd had a chip on her shoulder, secrets to keep, and something to prove; now she had friends, a surrogate family that cared for and supported her unconditionally, as well as a boyfriend that would love and protect her with his last breath.

The entire team mourned with her, wanting so badly to do what they could to ease the archer's pain and let her know she wasn't alone, but Artemis was and always would be private person, especially regarding family matters. So they gave her the space she requested. When a mission like this arose, everyone felt confident it was just what she needed to take her mind off her sorrows, even if just for a while.

xxx

Paula Crock had left the life of crime to care for and protect her two daughters from the homicidal psychopath she'd had the misfortune to procreate with. He was a master criminal, and Paula wouldn't lie to say she wasn't instantly attracted to the man. Together they'd become a formidable and dangerous combination; thieves and kidnappers by trade, enforcers and strong-arms when necessary, but most importantly deadly assassins for hire. They'd even taken contracts from organizations such as the League of Shadows, and if you worked for them, you were considered elite, and by all accounts they were.

Soon disillusionment began creeping in. Pregnancy and childbirth had changed her, and not long after she began to see how her husband's coldness and cruelty were impacting their two daughters.

One time, when she'd returned from a mission in Malaysia, she came home to find the two siblings bloody and bruised, forced to fight each other in order to hone their skills. Lawrence Crock was determined to make them master assassins, someone worthy to carry on the family name.

Paula had chosen this life; her daughters had not. Sitting on the ground holding the two sobbing siblings was the last straw; she knew then she had to get out. But before she could, she had one last mission to compete. A high-profile assassination, rumored to have come from as high as Ra's al Ghul himself, and no one ever said no to jobs like that.

Perhaps it was her lack of concentration, or the fear of never seeing her daughters again. Maybe even a desire to fail to have an excuse for leaving the game. Whatever the reason, she lost focus and by mission's end, the target had escaped, Sportsmaster's reputation tarnished, and a spinal injury she might never recover from.

She spent almost two and a half agonizing years in prison away from her family, fearful that in her absence Lawrence was molding and shaping the two girls into his perfect little soldiers; the assassins he'd always hoped for. It was a family business after all.

She finally flattened her sentence and retuned home, only to find her greatest nightmare had come true, Paula threatened to call the police, the FBI, any and every agency that had Lawrence "Crusher" Crock on their top 10 most wanted list. The deal was simple, her daughters for his life.

Soon after, they left the dingy Starling City apartment for Gotham and a new beginning. Lawrence had vowed revenge, and now he'd finally had it.

Paula Crock was dead; a self-inflicted gunshot wound for a woman who'd never touched a gun in her life. Exotic armaments and poisons were her weapons of trade. The police called it a suicide, but Artemis and Jade knew better.

xxx

The intel on the flash drive was massive. Pictures of trucks and Humvees arriving and leaving the facility at all hours of the night. Schematics showing hidden labs within the refinery along with pumping stations retrofitted to produce the toxin. Everything a criminal organization needed to mass produce one of the deadliest formulas every created, all saved on one simple 512 GB flash drive.

Inside the facility, the Team had been searching for hours, unable to find the hidden corridor that led to the labs and distribution centers inside; and that was becoming a concern. Bane and his soldiers had been lying in wait the last time they'd entered one of his facilities, and there was no telling what was in store for them now.

They needed something more concrete Robin had argued, but Artemis convinced him that they had to seize the moment while they still had the element of surprise. Despite that nagging voice in his head, Dick reluctantly agreed. He may have been team leader, but this was her mission.

With all the distractions of the last few weeks, the last thing the archer wanted were five other voices inside her head; asking questions, intruding into her private thoughts. So she refused the mind link and the team was forced to go radio coms only.

An hour into the mission and several dead ends later, the archer had finally found what she'd been searching for.

Thorough the small clear cutout window, she could see the small black duffle resting on the opposite side of the heavily reinforced steel blast door. She dropped to her knees, removing a small chisel from her quiver and pried open the faceplate that led to the internal wiring of the door mechanism. After cutting away and crossing a few wires, the door slowly lumbered open. She quickly placed the faceplate back over the wiring and sealed it into place with a strong epoxy.

They team had been on radio silence for the past half hour and Artemis was thankful for the respite.

This was going to be tricky.

Inside the hallway, under the red glowing emergency exit sign, she removed a metal section of the wall plating, finding the pipelines that led deep into the refinery's infrastructures. Ripping out the old fiberglass insulation, the archer retrieved the remaining epoxy, spraying it across the support beam that stood there. She didn't have much time. She reached into the black bag, removing and placing the sensor device onto the beam, carefully wiring it into the main power coupling when a sudden burst of wind heralded the arrival of a certain speedster, the teen who'd stolen her heart.

Wally West had been uncharacteristically patient during her grieving period, forcing himself to give her the time and space she needed to deal with all the emotions swirling inside her. He knew there were still lines he dare not to cross when it came to her family, but with a mission as risky and important as this, the respect he had for Artemis's personal space was not as high on his priority list as her safety was.

"Babe what are you doing?"

"Wally! Jesus! Are you trying to give me heart attack?" she exhaled surprised, "you're supposed to be at the pumping station."

"And you were supposed to contact us once you found the corridor," he scolded.

"Well, I was going to, until I found this…."

"Whoa…" the speedster gasped. "Is that what I think it is?"

Artemis nodded, "It's an Isopropyl nitrate compound of some kind with a motion trigger. It's connected to the pipeline, and I bet it's wired to several duplicates all over the refinery. Someone really didn't want us in here. Wally if there's more of these around, they've got enough power to bring this whole building down."

"How did you know where to…." the speedster asked before Artemis cut him off.

"Wally that is soooo not important right now, but I do know I can't defuse it. You've got to find Robin; he'll know what to do."

"Babe, just leave it be. Don't even breathe on it. You're lucky taking that panel off didn't trigger the timer."

"No kidding," she exhaled nervously.

"Look, I'm not leaving you next to this thing; you're getting the hell out of here. Dick can handle it and if something goes wrong, I'll have him halfway to Mexico before that thing even starts to glow."

"Wally we can't risk it going off, it will destroy any chance we have of catching whoever's recreating this compound. I promise I won't touch it, but I'm not leaving it here unguarded. What if someone stumbles up on it? I'm not going to risk it. I'll be fine, but you have to find Robin now! Hurry!"

"But…."

"Not buts Wally." she replied determined. Suddenly she reached up and palmed his face, kissing him fiercely. He returned it with fervor, not caring for just a moment if the entire complex might come down or not, but her timing did leave a little to be desired.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

"Luck, were going to need it. Now hurry."

He nodded and dropped into a runner's stance when she yelled back to him, "Wally…I love you, be careful ok?"

"Love you too, be back in a sec. Don't…touch…anything. Promise?"

"Promise," she smiled nervously.

Safely away from the device, he disappeared in a bolt of lightning. Artemis swallowed hard and went back to work, pulling out her tool kit and taking off the detonator casing.

Seconds later she broke radio silence for the first time that evening….and the last.

"Oh God."

Wally found Robin four hundred yards ahead trying to hack into the antiquated security cameras when her message made it to their receivers. Seconds later Dick was holding on for dear life until they finally arrived at corridor junction 342-B.

"No…." the speedster whispered in anguish.

Artemis stood on the wrong side of the massive blast door; her voice muffled behind the two foot thick glass plating of the viewport. Her channel was open but full of static, the heavy steel doors interfering with the signal.

"I'm sorry Wally!" she cried.

"What did you do?" he pleaded.

"The casing was coming loose and…I thought if I just disconnected the power coupling it might shut it off."

Robin immediately dropped to his knees, removing several tools from his utility belt and going to work on the panel. Without being able to see the bomb components or the display, there was no way he could talk the archer through disarming it. Instead, he placed his entire focus on the locking mechanism and finding a way to hot wire it open, but already he was running into obstacles. The door panel would no pry open no manner how hard he pulled. Whatever substance that surrounded the faceplate was holding it securely and time was running out.

After several failed attempts at dislodging it, Dick dropped the pry bar and pulled out a small acetylene torch to cut through the metal barrier, hoping to God he wouldn't damage the wires behind it.

"It must have triggered a backup timer," Robin spoke grimly, as the corridor began to fill with the metallic burning stench of the welder, "but I don't know how it could have overridden the blast door protocols. Artemis is there some kind of release mechanism on your side?"

Artemis looked around frantically at the wall. "I…I don't see one!" she replied urgently.

"Damn it," Dick cursed under his breath, trying to stay calm and remain the voice of reason in a very volatile situation. It was necessary, because seconds later his best friend kicked logic and reason to the curb.

Wally's skin began to crackle with electricity and the red and yellow material of his uniform started to blur as the speedster suddenly crashed against the blast doors, knocking himself back a few feet from the impact. He willed himself to vibrate his molecules again and rushed the door but with no success. His third attempt left him dazed and bloodied and Artemis screamed for him to stop, but he ignored her pleas.

Robin's torch finally melted through the metallic faceplate and Dick swallowed hard in response. Just as he feared, the control wires had melted away from the extreme heat. He'd had one chance, and now it was gone. There was nothing left he could do.

"Wally! Wally!" she screamed as the dizzy speedster stumbled to the door, his nose and mouth gushing blood but still undeterred.

"You've got to stop," she cried, "It's going to be ok."

"No its not!" he screamed, placing his palm flat against the viewport, she placing hers next to his in kind.

Tears swelled in Wally's eyes just as Superboy rushed into the scene. Conner had been unable to decipher the broken transmissions from the far end of the refinery, unsure of what to expect upon his arrival. Within seconds he felt his heart rush to this throat.

He immediately understood what had to be done, rushing to the barrier and digging his fingers deep into the steel blast door trying to jar it loose. The door shifted slightly, and a wave of relief washed over the three of them, until suddenly a second blast door dropped behind it, heavier that the first, blocking the viewport.

"What the hell?" Dick cursed as the hatch slammed to the ground. A secondary door just didn't make sense.

"Artemis!" Robin screamed into the com unit "Can you hear me? How much time is left?"

Through a thickly static channel they heard her broken response. "Forty-five seconds…You've got to get out of here," her voice crackled.

"No Artemis!" Wally screamed into his comm unit, "Stand back, I can vibrate through this, I swear to God I can!"

"Babe…please!" she screamed through the steel door. "Don't!"

Conner watched helplessly as the speedster repeatedly slammed into the steel wall. Blood gushing from his nose as he bore down harder, desperately searching for the one ability he could never master.

"Wally…"

"No…No! I can do this!"

After a moment's pause, she reached out. Not to her boyfriend, but to the only one strong enough to do what needed to be done.

"Conner…Please!" she begged.

Superboy's throat began to tighten. He knew what she was asking, but there had to be another way. If anyone could find it, Robin could, but when he looked down at Robin's defeated expression, his tools scattered across the floor in futility, he knew what he had to do, what Artemis would want him to do.

There wasn't much time left.

Wally had barely enough to times to process her words, when Connor suddenly grabbed his arm in a death grip, the speedster staring up at him in shock.

"Conner! What are you doing?!" he screamed, until the heartbreaking reality of the situation stepped in. "No…no…no…no…!"

The speedster's arm began to blur and the smell of burnt flesh permeating the hallway as Connor's skin began to blister from the friction of Wally's attempted escape.

"Conner! Don't do this!" he begged.

He hated himself for it, but the Teen of Steel knew he had no other choice.

Lose one or lose them all.

Ignoring the blistering pain, he grabbed Dick by the back of his uniform, running the three of them away from the blast door as fast as he could, turning down an adjacent hallway and smashing through the unfortified fire wall closest to the emergency exit.

The archer listened as Wally's screams broke up through the open channel, finally fading to static. She wiped her eyes, resigning herself to her fate

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

They were less than fifty feet into the frozen tundra outside when when the refinery blew, sending them hurdling across the compound. While Conner absorbed the brunt of it, they all felt it, hitting the grown and tumbling for yards until they landed against the snowy hillside.

The three heroes stared in horror at the glowing plume rising to the sky; three quarters of the building completely vaporized. The heartbreaking look on his girlfriend's face would be forever seared in his mind. She was the center of his universe, and now his world would never be the same.