Welcome to my Young Justice fanfic. It's basically AU because in the series this character, Alice Crock, not exist, but there aren't really big changes from the series, besides her. Of course, there will be some changes because she'll influenced the events, but nothing further. The couples and the other characters will be the same, at least the ones from the first season. However, I thought about this idea before the third season was out so I might use characters that appear in this season and their story will be different in my fanfic. This story concentrates in Alice but I might do some scenes without her that will focus in other characters. This chapter will be like the comics of 'Rabbit Holes' but with Alice. I'm not really fond first POV but in this chapter I'll write Alice POV, because in 'Rabbit Holes' Artemis POV was written and I want it to be similar. So, the first paragraph in this chapter is in first POV besides that the chapter would be in third POV.
everything that written in italics besides the first paragraph is in sign language.
Hope it'll be in T rating and nothing further, I'm write it to be in T level, tell me if I pass this and need to change the rating at some point of the story.
English isn't my native language, so forgive me for any minor mistakes.
Disclaimer: Young Justice belongs to Greg Wiesman and DC Universe. I don't own anything. I'll use quotes from the comics of the series and the episodes of the show. All the chapter names are from the series and the comics. I'll also take inspiration from the comics, and the TV shows who exist, the characters are from the comics but I might change their stories a bit. The chapters names will be like the episodes' names in the comics and the series. 'Alice in Wondeland' is written by Lewis Carroll, I mentin this book because it was also mentioned in the comic and the series. Most of the conversations in that chapter are from the comic 'Rabbit Holes'.
Rabbit Holes
GOTHAM CITY, JULY 31, 17:42 EDT
My name is Alice. Alice Crock. Today I'm going to meet my mother for the first time. She was in prison since I was two years old so I don't remember her at all. Everything is going to change from today. No matter who is my mother, my life won't be the same.
Alice lied down on her bed throwing penknife in the air. She was in that position since her sister went down to meet her mother. Alice was very nervous, she glanced to the poster of Alice in Wonderland next to her bed, she really wanted to fall into a rabbit hole and disappear. She was named Alice because of Alice in wonderland, so for the first time in her life she actually wants to run away. To fall into a rabbit hole. She can deal with everything; all the violence, the blood, her father training, she knew it's for her own good, she needs to know how to protect herself. After couple of minutes the door was opened. Artemis came to the room. "You need to come to meet her." She stated. They talked about that before, Alice didn't want to talk with their mom, because she doesn't remember her at all, but Artemis didn't give her that much of a choice.
"I'll come later; we'll talk at dinner properly, please, just not now." Alice asked her sister. If Artemis wouldn't have known better her sister, she would might have think Alice is afraid. But Artemis knew better, and honestly, she was the one who afraid of that conversation. Alice always thought that their mother was weak because she got caught. Their father always said that, and not only she got arrested she became handicapped, which is very lame in Alice point of view.
Artemis rolled her eyes, "I'll tell her to go to the shower now. But you are talking with her at dinner.' Artemis told her and went out of their room. Alice sighed with relief. She knew she delays the inevitable but she didn't know what to do. She never met her mother. Well, technically, she did meet her, when she was two years old, but it doesn't count.
GOTHAM CITY, JULY 31, 20:02 EDT
"Alice, come here now!" Artemis yelled from the kitchen. Alice sighed and went from her room to the kitchen. She saw her mother sit in there with her wheelchair, waiting for her to come while Artemis makes the dinner; pasta.
"Alice, you've grown so much, I'm very glad to see you again." Her mother wheeled herself to be in front of Alice.
"Hey." Alice said and went to sit at the table.
Artemis turned around to Alice, 'Be nice.' She signed to her in sign language.
Alice rolled her eyes. They knew sign language because of the Wilsons, though Artemis wasn't very good in that, but she knew enough to talk with her sister. "It's nice to meet you, Paula." Alice gritted her teeth. Paula glanced at Artemis; she didn't expect her daughter to call her in the private name. Artemis shrugged; she knew it would be hard.
"So, tell me about you." Paula asked Alice. Artemis sent her letters and she wrote about Alice too, but she never talked to her younger daughter.
'What I'm supposed to tell her?' Alice asked Artemis in sign language.
'Things of a normal eight years old.' Artemis signed her, she knew her sister, she never did stuff of a child in her age. Clearly, it's their father's fault, but it's didn't bother to Alice.
'Because I do things like that?' Alice signed and rolled her eyes.
"You know sign language?" Paula asked her daughters, she was surprised.
"Yes, because of the Wilsons, we grew up with them and few years ago Joey got kidnapped and they cut his throat. Since then, he can't speak and we all learned sign language because of that." Artemis explained.
"Poor child." Paula said. "I remember he loved to sing when he was younger."
"Yeah," Artemis said.
"Slade and Adeline are still together?" Paula asked, there is not a chance that would have their relationship.
"Technically yes, but Adeline blames Slade for the attack, so they barely talked in the past few years, they only stayed together so Rose could remember all her family as a whole for some time." Artemis explained.
'WHAT?!' Alice signed in surprise, 'Why you didn't tell me that? How I didn't know that?!'
'Because Grant and I didn't want you to tell Rose. We'll talk about this later.' Artemis answered.
Alice was shocked from the new information. She was so many times at the Wilson's house but now she felt like she doesn't really know what's going on. There was an awkward silence for a while, Alice didn't want to continue in this conversation and cooperate with it, so she decided to stay quiet. Besides, the only thing she could say to her mother was connected to the current conversation and she didn't want to talk about Joey, she didn't trust her mother. "So, Alice, what do you like?" Paula tried to ask her daughter again.
"Alice in wonderland, chess and cards." Alice told her. It wasn't a lie, not really. She did like Alice in wonderland because of her name and the poster in the room, well and because that was the only movie she ever saw. The chess and the cards are also because of Alice in Wonderland, but chess was a great game for practice on strategy and any card game could help you learn read body language and Alice wasn't very good in that, so she needed any method she could get to learn body language.
"That's nice. We can play sometime." Paula smiled to her daughter, Alice didn't response to that.
Artemis put the pasta in the plates. "Sorry dinner's nothing special." Artemis put one plate in front of her mother and she gave the other plate to Alice.
"Better than I've had the last six years." Paula said. The crock girls started eating quitely, none of them knew what to say. "So, girls, you have homework?" Their mother asked.
"Mom, it's summer." Artemis answered.
'I should tell her?' Alice signed to Artemis after she put the pork and knife on the table to do so.
'No, don't.' Artemis signed her back.
"Girls can you please stop talking in sign language? It's very not polite. I want to know you, understand what going on in your life, so please stop hiding things from me and have a conversation with me." Paula begged them.
"We are sorry." Artemis apologized and lowered her head. Alice didn't say anything and the rest of the dinner was quiet.
"You should have told me about the Wilsons." Alice sat near the table and put bombs inside playing cards.
"No, I didn't. Because you would tell this to Rose." Artemis told Alice as she made her arrows.
"Rose deserves to know." Alice stated.
"Maybe Rose deserves to know that, but Joey would see that like they prefer her over him." Artemis said.
"Joey might hates his father, but he still lives with him, it's not like they give him another choice!" Alice called.
"You should be nicer to mom." Artemis changed the subject.
Alice rolled her eyes, "Why? I don't know this woman at all."
"It's not her fault." Artemis reminded her.
"She was weak and got arrested, so it is her fault." Alice said.
"Girls! Daddy's home!" Their mother yelled from her room.
Alice got up from the table to go meet her dad, he's been out for more then week. Artemis told him to return for the time their mother come, but he was supposed to return anyway.
"Alice, please don't get your hopes for us been a normal family." Artemis mumbled before she went after her sister.
Alice heard that but she pretends she didn't. She was a realistic child, she never dreamed of impossible things, but there was only one thing she let herself to have hope for: to have a full family. She always wanted all of her family to be together and now she has the chance for that even thought she doesn't know what to think about her mother yet.
"Oh, yeah... Paula. Forgot you were coming home." Their dad, Lawrence, told Paula.
"Overjoyed to see you too, lover." Their mother said, the door to the parents' room was shut down. Alice wasn't sure what to do. She would never listen to what her father said there are staff she can't know, she was never eavesdrop to him before, but Artemis choose to listen so Alice didn't walk away.
"I meant to visit." Lawrence said.
"Even a postcard would have been nice. Artemis wrote once a week." Paula told her husband.
'Wait, seriously? You did? You never told me that.' Alice signed to her sister.
'Every single time I mentioned her you didn't agree to listen.' Artemis answered, she could never mention their mother, when she did Alice stopped her every time. The only thing Alice agreed to do who was related to their mom was learning Vietnamese, and that because she understood the importance of languages.
"She did? You're kiddin'. Their dad said.
'See? Dad also didn't know.' Alice told her sister in sign language.
"Stop rolling your eyes. It's all that got me through..." Their mother started to say.
"Look, the way the game played out, it could have been either of us." Lawrence told her.
"But it wasn't. I took the fall. Both falls. I did the time..." Paula said, the girls could hear their father sit on the bed heavily. "...But I'm back now. Artemis and Alice are my priority. I lost one daughter while I was gone. I won't lose the others..."
'What?' Alice asked her sister. The phrasing their mother used was a bit weird to Alice.
'She probably meant to the years she lost with us.' Artemis quickly explained.
"...I need to set some ground rules, Lawrence." Paula finished her speech.
'What ground rules?' Alice asked, she didn't like where this conversation is going.
"Six years you're away, and now you takin' over?" Lawrence asked, "While you were gone, I raised them, trained them, toughened them up!"
"I'm giving up the life. You have to give it up too." Paula told her husband.
"Or else what?" Lawrence asked his wife.
"Or else you're out of here." Paula threatened.
'What? She really just said that?' Alice signed.
"Then I guess I'm out... But, baby, you're kiddin' yourself if you think you can save our daughters from this life. They are part of us." Lawrence clarified. Artemis grabbed Alice's hand and dragged her to their room before their father could see them. The girls closed the room door behind him. Alice walked back and forth but didn't say anything, they both waited they could talk freely. They heard their dad snapped their parents' room door and heard his heavy steps moving to the entrance door.
"She can't do that! How could she say that?" Alice called.
"Apparently she can." Artemis mumbled, still a bit shocked.
"She can't ask that! This life is all I know! She can't force us to stop!" Alice called; she was furious.
"She just did, and maybe she is right. We have a chance for different life now!" Artemis said.
"I don't want a different life! I love my life!" Alice called.
"Because you don't now anything else! You grew up only with dad in a world you need to kill to survive! It doesn't have to be like that. You didn't have a choice, but now you have." Artemis smiled at her.
"Exactly! I killed before! I'm only eight and I already have blood on my hands! It's not like I can erase everything I did and neither do you!" Alice reminded her.
Artemis get out his green uniform; which weren't the ones she wore to the missions their father assigned to them. "Maybe, but at least I can try."
"What are you planning to do?" Alice raised an eyebrow.
"To change my life, to be better." Her sister answered.
"You really plan to go out there and play a hero?" Alice sneered.
"Yes, and you should come with me." Artemis told her and stand up after she finished wearing her suit. Artemis create this thing for a joke, something similar to the uniform of Green Arrow, but Artemis would never suppose to actually use it.
"You really think you can be a hero? That I can be a hero? I'm running a gang of villain kids!" Alice called.
"And as you understand don't say anything about them to mom." Artemis suggested.
"Yes, I realized that, you understand why I don't trust her now?" Alice asked.
Artemis nodded, "But, you should give her a chance."
"She wants to ruin my life! What I'm suppose to tell Rose, to everyone now? My mother decided I'm not part of this life anymore? That if I do anything related to that she will kick me out? I can leave by myself." Alice told her.
"You are not moving to the streets. You heard mom, she doesn't want this life here, and you need to respect her, but you should give this a chance and not rule this out." Artemis finished to get dressed.
"But I grew up to be villain! I grew up to be assassin, to kill. I can't change my life!" Alice called.
"Try, come with me to the street, don't consider this as been a hero, think of it as fun, you didn't have time to get out aggression for a long time, and since dad left you probably won't have soon. Besides, this could give you a glance of the other side, nothing beyond." Artemis offered.
"Fine, but only because I haven't had a street time for almost two weeks and I miss the action." Alice sighed, she went to get out her other uniform, she also had one she created as a joke, an eagle one, like a metaphor to Robin, it wasn't serious. She chose the eagle because there was an eaglet in the story of Alice in Wonderland.
"But it's nothing serious I'm just bored and I can't say no to be in the streets." Alice clarified as she wears her brown-grey uniform.
"I know." Artemis smiled.
"Let me guess, I can't bring my nunchaku?" Alice asked and rolled her eyes.
"Just the bombs." Artemis answered.
GOTHAM CITY, JULY 31, 22:37 EDT
"I can't believe we are doing this. Dad will kill us." Alice said as she jumped to the next rooftop.
"He won't know." Artemis muttered and jumped after Alice, they looked for crimes to stop.
"He can find out." Alice reminded her.
"Look, we don't really have a choice, mom said it very clear she doesn't want this life in her house, so we need to change things." Artemis said, jumping faster then her sister and bypassing her.
"I won't succeed to live like that, I can't quit this life. I'm just suppose to forget I was part of the shadows, that I know how to kill?" Alice asked.
"Not forgetting, but stop with that. It's not easy for me either, but I have a chance for something I could never have and that a normal life, I want to take it." Artemis explained.
"I don't think I can live a normal life; I'm meeting with villain kids on a daily basis, I don't suppose to go to school that year!" Alice reminded.
"When mom hear it, she'll call them, she wants us to open a new page, to have a new beginning, we should give ourselves this opportunity." Artemis said.
"I won't stop be with my gang, she can't tell me not to meet them. They are part of my life, don't tell her about them." Alice asked from her sister.
"Don't worry I won't, but promise to try change your life." Artemis ask in return.
"I'm here with you right now, that all you can ask from me." Alice jumped to the next roof.
"I think there is a robbery there!" Artemis called and pointed on some store.
"Finally," Alice said, she did want some action.
They both jumped inside. "Don't." Artemis told the robbers.
Alice snuck up on them and threw needles inside their guns.
"Don't? Don't?! Kid, you have a little bow and arrow set, we have guns." One of the robbers said.
"All set." Alice told her sister.
Artemis shot some arrows on them before they could pull the trigger, even though, it wouldn't work for them because Alice's needles making sure the guns won't be useful anymore. Artemis fought one of the rubbers and Alice the other one and they quickly won.
"The money! We'll split it with you... or you take it! Take it all!" One of the rubbers said.
The Crock sisters could hear the police outside and jumped off right away. "That was close." Alice said after they were on a rooftop.
"Yes, but it was really good, I actually enjoyed." Artemis told her and jumped to another rooftop on there way home.
"You grew up to be an assassin, you can't ignore it. What we just did is a game, it's not real, we can't actually be heroes." Alice reminded her.
"Why are acting like this? Why are you so hypocrite?" Artemis asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Alice asked and stopped jumping.
"I know you are telling the girls that they can be whatever they want and they are not like their parents. You are telling them that they have a future and they don't have to be villains, why can't you say that about yourself?" Artemis asked and jump back to Alice's rooftop.
"Because they didn't grow up the way I did, the way we did. Their parents are the villains, not them, everything they know is because I taught them to do this stuff, they didn't train from birth, they aren't destined to be assassins, they still have a chance to choose their own way, I don't." Alice answered and jumped to the next roof.
"One, you just prove you can fight without kill and be different." Artemis jumped to the roof Alice stood, "And second, Cass also grew up that way and you believe in her."
"Don't speak about her!" Alice hissed and looked around everywhere to see no one listen to them. She started to jumped faster so Artemis won't say anything else until they arrived back to their room.
"Sorry, I forgot you won't mention her in the streets." Artemis mumbled and got inside the room from the window.
"Yes, you shouldn't even know about her!" Alice called.
"I know, I'm sorry." Artemis said again.
"Cass ran away, after her first time! Me and Rose never had this courage! She has more chance than us to do good in the world." Alice answered on her sister's question from before.
"You just did some good in the world." Artemis smiled at her sister.
Alice just rolled her eyes. She still hasn't taken any of this seriously.
GOTHAM CITY, AUGUST 3, 21:20 EDT
Alice continued to go with Artemis to fight criminals in the city in the past two days. She hated this idea, of being a hero, she felt like she betrayed herself, her father. She felt like she betrayed in her all life. But Artemis liked it and she wanted to have some street time because she knew it would decrease now that her father left.
"What in the world...?" Artemis said as she saw something fall in the sky.
"What was that?!" Alice called in the same time.
"We should check it." Artemis decided and followed after that.
"From all the places, Gotham Academy?" Alice asked and stared at the school.
"Yes, the school of fancy-pants rich kids. They supposed to have high scholastic standards and a wide range of extra-curriculars." Artemis said in mocking.
"Well, they need to update the brochure." Alice muttered after she jumped on the tree to see what's going on inside.
Artemis jumped to the tree either. "There's nothing like this at Gotham North High!"
"The heroes are here..." Alice muttered.
"Yes, that's Robin, the boy wonder! And Kid Flash! But who- or what- is that?!" Artemis called, pointing at the figure in the center of the room.
"I don't know, but Ivo is here too, we have to go!" Alice grabbed her sister's hand, to urge her to go.
Artemis looked at the stairs, "You are right, we are know who this guy is! We've seen him with dad before..."
"Exactly, we can't interfere! It's not just lowly criminals! He is someone in our dad level, it's dangerous and dad will kill us, we need to go!" Alice said again.
"We can't just ignore this; we need to help!" Artemis told her sister.
"They are heroes they can handle themselves, besides, we're supposed to be in Ivo's side remember?" Alice retorted.
"Well... I don't think his monkeys knows that..." Artemis looked around at all the monkeys who surrounded them.
Author note: Well, this is the first chapter. Hope you liked Alice; I want her to be similar to Cassandra Cain in her toughness. Cass, Rose, Joey and a lot other villain kids will also be in this fanfic, I'll explain everything in the next chapters, don't worry.
If you think she is too young so I'm sorry, in Young Justice Dick started his career as Robin at age nine so she is only a year younger than the age he started. Besides, I wanted her to be very young in compare the rest of the teams. I also didn't want her to be ten because I didn't want Alice to remember her mother at all, which was very important thing in her childhood as you might noticed from this chapter.