Fix You

Where

"One move and I shoot."

Artemis froze, the broken end of her bow suspended in midair, inches from delivering a smashing blow to a masked man's head. A fist came up, soaring towards her face, and she dodged, bringing her bow down and successfully knocking out her adversary. She readied to face another foe but found none coming, instead only seeing the confused faces of her teammates.

"That's what I thought."

Confused, Artemis turned around slowly, eyes narrowed until they came to rest on the speaker – the man in the red facemask. He stood across from them, his back to a small, dark alley. His clothes were stained red with blood; one arm was wrapped around a small body, the other holding a gun up against dark hair.

"Robin," Artemis gasped. He was covered in blood, his costume torn, and the red helmet man's arm was the only thing supporting his unconscious body. His head was hanging forward and the archer could only barely see the top of his face, but what she could see was covered in more blood, most of it fresh and still bleeding.

"If any of you make any move to stop me or follow me I'll blow his brains out." The man tightened his grip on Robin and began backing out towards the alley. "Forget needing him alive, I'm sure Donovan can bring him back."

Artemis's eyes darted to each of her teammates, each stunned into silence as they watched the scene unfold. When her gaze finally came to rest on Batman she saw he too was still, his mouth drawn into a tight line as he watched the man drag away his son. He made no move to intervene and it was then that Artemis realized it was over. They'd lost. The man in the red helmet had won and now he was collecting his prize, slowly backing away from them and there was nothing they could do. Artemis wanted to scream, to cry, to run after the man and beat him senseless, but she found she couldn't move. She was frozen, her broken bow still in her grasp and the ghost of Robin's name still on her lips. There was nothing she could do, and that's what scared her most.

oOo

Artemis blinked away the memory, forcing her mind to see only what was in front of her. It was a brick wall, old and cracking, with ancient spider webs clinging to the crevices. To the right and around the corner Artemis knew the wall continued and that it was covered in blood. There was an old elevator-type contraption there as well, hanging off the ground by an old frayed rope, remnants of another rope, cut, dangling from the side. That's where the blood was; smeared down the wall in a long, dark streak, darkening still as it continued to dry.

It was his blood. Batman had run tests and confirmed it. Artemis turned away from the wall, not willing to see the blood again. It was pointless though, the memory already burned into her head, flashing across her mind's eye whenever she closed her eyes and even when she didn't. Sometimes she wasn't sure if what she was seeing was in front of her face or in front of her mind. What was real and what was memory was blurring into one, becoming one streaky picture of pain.

She let out a gentle breath, loosening the near empty quiver on her back, the jagged edge of her broken bow rubbing against her exposed back. She wasn't able to get it to collapse anymore and, not having anywhere to put it after the fight ended (with all the masked men disappearing along with their leader), simply strung it across her back with the broken string. She'd been out all day, not even having gone back to her house or the mountain to get a change of clothes. It hadn't done any good though. None of their efforts had.

They'd combed the city, Wally and his uncle covering all the main streets and most back ways and Superman covering everything again from the air, x-ray vision scanning every possible hiding spot, all coming up empty. After gathering everything he could from the main scene, Batman had gone off who knows where, doing who knows what and even he'd come up with nothing. The police had shown, shortly after the enemy had disappeared, but Batman had sent them away, not telling them anything.