Song is Broken Angel by Boyce Avenue
Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own Young Justice. DC does.
ARTEMIS' POV
"C'mon Jade," I begged my big sister as she packed her bag across the room. I held my teddy bear in my lap. Don't judge the teddy. Mr. Beary's done more for me than most people. Also, I was only eight. having a teddy bear was 100% acceptable. "Jae, please, don't go. Don't leave me here alone!
"I have to, Allie," She said, using the shortened version of her nickname for me, Alice.
"No. No, you don't!" I begged. "Please. Please, don't go!"
"Sorry, Sis, but Mom's not getting out of prison anytime soon and I refuse to live in this house with just Dad!" My sister exclaimed.
"Dad and you and me!" I reminded her. "We have to keep this family from falling apart!"
Jade didn't respond. Her hands stopped moving, frozen. I thought for a second that maybe I had convinced her to stay, but then she smacked her forehead. " Toothbrush, duh! Knew I was forgetting something!"
She walked to our bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste. She started walking back to her bed. "Dad will come after you," I stated, trying once again to convince her to stay.
She put her toothbrush in her bag. "Let him," She said confidently, and looked up at the Alice in Wonderland poster that hung above her bed. "I'll disappear. Like the Cheshire Cat." Jade pulled on her signature navy blue cap. She put her duffel on her shoulder and walked to the door. I jumped off of my bed and followed her, still clutching Mr. Beary to my chest.
When she reached the door, she looked back at me, her brown eyes softening. "You should get out, too," She told me gently. A spark of hope started in my chest. Maybe she'd at least take me with her. I didn't want to go, to leave the only home that I've ever known, but I might if she actually asked me to. My hope was quickly dashed. "I'd let you come with me, but, you'd just slow me down." She added quickly.
"Someone has to be here when Mom gets out," I said sadly.
She glared at me, angry. "Haven't you learned anything?!" She snapped. "In this family, it's every girl for herself!" She walked out and closed the door, and I knew that she would never come back. I collapsed on my knees, holding back the rivers of tears that wanted flow out of my eyes as everything I knew was destroyed, crashing and burning and collapsing and shattering into an irreparable oblivion.
A FEW HOURS LATER
"Artemis! Jade! I'm home!" Sportsmaster's low, familiar voice called from the front of the apartment. I pretty much only called him Dad or Daddy when I was talking to him. Other than that, I often called him Sportsmaster, even in my head. Also, I was never quite sure what to do when he announced his arrival. If Jade and I came, he got annoyed. If we didn't come, he got annoyed. I opted to reply.
"Hey, Daddy!" I called back. "How was work?"
"Y'know, just the usual." Of course it was the usual. I hated the usual. It meant that there was a 99% chance that he had killed someone. I was glad that he didn't make me kill anyone. I remembered two weeks ago, just two days after Mom had gotten arrested and put in prison, Sportsmaster had taken Jade and me to 'work' with him. He had made Jade kill someone, a woman, while he and I watched. It had been terrifying. Even more so since Jae seemed relatively unfazed by it. Dad had made me even more scared afterwards. "It'll be your turn soon, Baby Girl." He had told me on the way back to his helicopter. I never, ever wanted it to be my turn.
Sportsmaster stood in me and Jade's-er-my doorway. He looked in the room and arched an eyebrow. "Where's your sister?" He asked me. "Jade!' He yelled. When he didn't get a response from her, he muttered, "that dumba** little b****! Where is she?!" He looked at me for an answer.
"I- well- er- she-she-," I stuttered.
"Where-where," He stuttered, mocking me. "I-is sh-she?"
"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "She left."
The next thing that I knew, I was being pressed against the wall, hard. "Whaddaya mean, she left?!" He roared.
"I-I mean she ran away. She packed her bag and left, and she's never coming back," Then I got carried away. "And it was your fault, too. She said herself that she couldn't live with you anymore."
"And you didn't try to stop her?!" Sportsmaster yelled angrily. He was angrier than I'd ever seen him before. He was now pushing me against the wall so hard that it felt like my wrists were about to snap. I got why he was so mad, since Jade was his favorite.
"I did, Daddy, I really, really did, but she wouldn't listen!" He pushed my wrists even harder against the wall.
"Then it's your fault, you idiotic b****! If you couldn't stop her, then it was your fault. If you had asked better, she would've stayed. So don't blame me for something that's your fault, you ungrateful little brat!" I felt like he had just slapped me in the face. It was all my fault. Panic flooded through me. My breathing sped up. Dad pushed me even harder into the wall. I heard a snap and suddenly felt like I had just been stabbed in the arm with Zeus' lightning bolt. I screamed. I had undoubtedly broken my wrist. I knew I had, because I had twice before, both times during training, and the pain felt the same.
My so-called-father dropped me and stormed out of the room. I clutched my wrist as the room started to dip and spin. I had never been so panicked in my life. What was happening I wondered as my breathing sped up even more. I felt like I was gonna die. Instead, I passed out.
TWO YEARS LATER
I stood in front of a middle aged man, aiming my arrow at his chest. It took all of my willpower to keep my hands from shaking. I was terrified, but Sportsmaster stood behind me, goading me on. Three bodies already laid lifeless on the ground. His doing. The rest of the people watched in horror. "C'mon, you little brat! Just f***ing shoot!" He slapped me in the face again. It didn't hurt very much, as he had already slapped me so many times my cheek was numb. The guy that I was aiming an arrow at looked at me pityingly. My father noticed and slapped him. I could hear the faint sounds of sirens in the distance.
"Tigress!" My father snapped. "I'm gonna go wait outside, and if you're not there by the time that the police get here, you will get left. And if you don't finish off this man, then I will never let you into the house again, clear? Your sister never had a problem with this."
'But I'm not Jade!" I thought angrily. I nodded. Dad left the room.
Tears welled in my eyes. The guy, who I knew was named Micheal Carson,looked me straight in the eye as best as he could with my mask and mouthed, "Do it." I bit my lip, nodding, as a tear streamed down my cheek, followed by another.
"I'm sorry," I told him. "God, I'm so sorry!" I released the arrow, looking behind me. I heard the arrow hit its mark, and I ran out of the room as fast as I could, past Dad and into the helicopter, sobbing, feeling worse than I ever have in my life.
TWO MORE YEARS LATER
I stared sadly at my Tigress costume. It was a two piece; the top was an orange crop top type thing with black tiger stripes. The bottoms were a pair of black leggings. I also wore a black belt and black combat boots and a tiger mask. A/N Think the mask in S2. This had been my villain outfit since my third mission when I was nine. Dad had it resized whenever it needed to be resized. I had yet another mission tonight. More killing people. Yay. Note my sarcasm.
I wished I didn't have to do this. But I had to, if I wanted to make Daddy proud of me. He blamed me for everything that went wrong. 'That's because everything is your fault,' The voice in my head, who I called Sally, said. Now after reading Percy Jackson, I wished that I hadn't named it Sally. Oh, well. Too late now. I ignored her.
"Artemis!" My dad yelled. "It's almost time to go! Are you ready?"
"Almost," I called back, lying.
'We'll see about that," Sportsmaster said, and a minute later, he walked into my room, right as I was taking off my shirt.
"Dad!" I shrieked. "What the heck?!" Only I didn't actually say heck.
My father chuckled. "You said you were almost ready."
Crap. I had, hadn't I? God, I was an idiot sometimes. 'At least I'm still in my bra. Though I doubt he would've cared either way.'
He walked over to me. 'What does he want?' I wondered.
"So, Baby Girl, I see you lied to me," He said.
'Oh, no,' I thought. 'Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! I'm so in for it now!' He slapped my cheek hard and pulled out his pocket knife, which he dragged down my arm, leaving a long, deep cut. Then he left the room, reminding me that we had seven minutes until go time, and to met him in the chopper. I patched up my cut, got dressed and headed to the Helicopter.
A FEW HOURS LATER
I stood in front of a window and looked out. "Sportsmaster!" I called. "We have hero company!"
"Who?" He barked.
"Green Arrow, Batman, and their little sidekicks."
"Ok," He said. "Put your bow and quiver in a janitor's closet. Then the Arrows won't know that you can shoot, and you can take a bow from one of them if you need to."
"Got it," I said, and did what I was told. When I came back in,the civilians were unconscious because of the sedative gas my father had invented. he heroes were climbing through the windows. "
"Go," My dad barked at me. I complied. I heard the big guns tell their sidekicks to go after me. I heard their footsteps behind me. We stopped in front of the janitor's closet where my bow and quiver were. I drew my kopesh, a curved Egyptian sword. Speedy aimed his bow at me and Boy Wonder had a handheld explosive in, well, his hand. Before either of them could do anything, I cut Speedy's cheek. I saw my dad running towards us.
"Sorry, boys," I said. "As much as I would love to play, I can't," I dropped a gas bomb filled with my father's invention. The boys passed out almost instantly. I didn't, because my father had made sure that I was immune to it. I would have a dull headache for the next couple hours though. But that was nothing like the hangover-like headache the two sidekicks would soon have. I followed my father to the copter.
LAST TWO YEAR TIME SKIP
JULY 31, 2010
I stood at my dad's-er-my parent's bedroom holding an arrow. My mom had been released from prison today, which was awesome. I had met her out of the prison gate after school. Dad, on the other hand, had totally forgotten that Mom was coming home today, even though I had reminded him on Monday.
"-Even a postcard would've been nice," I heard Mom's quiet voice say. "Artemis wrote me a letter once a week."
"She did?" My dad said with a laugh. He had never believed me when I said that I was writing Mom.
"Don't laugh," My mother said quietly. "They were the only thing that got me through-"
Dad cut her off. "The way it went down, it could have been either of us."
Mom ignored him. A wise decision. I already lost one daughter while I was gone," She said. "I'm not losing the other one, too. Now that I'm back, my main focus is on Artemis. So, I need to lay out some ground rules."
Dad scoffed. "Been back a day and you're already bossing me around."
"I'm quitting the gig. You need to, too," My mom said. I was happily surprised. Was this only because of her wheelchair, or had she changed. I hoped she'd changed. Then I probably wouldn't have to work with Dad anymore.
"Or else what?" I heard my father ask.
"Or else you're out," Mom said bluntly. Wait, did my sweet mother just threaten to kick her husband out? I grinned. Yes. Yes, she had indeed.
"Then I guess I'm out," Dad replied. I was happy and angry at the same time. But mostly happy. But then my mood changed with next thing that he said. "But, Baby, you're kiddin' yourself if you think you can save her from the life. While you've been gone, I trained her, toughened her up. She's one of us."
Anger consumed me for a second. I snapped my arrow. I had to prove him wrong. I just had to.
AUGUST 6
'What the heck was that?' I wondered as a humanoid figure sailed across the sky, landing inside Gotham Academy, the local prep school for rich kids. I could never afford to go there. Good thing that I didn't want to.
I followed and wound up watching all of the sidekicks except for Speedy take on some sort of robot. All of a sudden, Kid Flash was being squeezed to death. I wished I could help. Then I remembered. Duh, I could. I was wearing a uniform like my Tigress one, only this one was kinda Green Arrow style. I shot an arrow. It sailed through the robot's head as he density shifted, but he dropped Kid Flash. I watched them defeat the bad guy. I wished that I could join them. But that was a hopeless dream.
Even Mom had no idea about my activities. I wasn't gonna tell her. I wasn't sure if she'd be ok with it or if she'd be furious. So I figured it was better to just not mention it.
AUGUST 7
I came back home feeling useless. I couldn't find a crime. No crimes in GOTHAM CITY. GOTHAM. God, some hero.
"Artemis," My mother called. "Could you come out here please?"
"Sure, Mom," I called back. "Just a sec." I pulled on my old blue robe to cover up my outfit. When I went into the living room... well, let's just say that I was surprised.
"Batman... Green Arrow..." I said, seeing the infamous heroes in my living room. Why would THE Batman and THE Green Arrow come to my apartment? "MOM!" I yelled. "What did you do?!" Seriously, what other reason would members of the Justice League be here for?
"We're here to see you," Batman stated. Wait, what?!
"Artemis, we know what you've been up to," Green Arrow said.
I realized what was going on. "And you came to stop me? Well, you can just forget-"
The Bat cut me off. "No. The Justice League has formed a covert team of young heroes, as I believe you already know."
'Oh god,' I thought. 'He knows. I'm so busted."
"We'd like you to join the team," Batman informed me.
But I didn't focus on what he'd just said. "If you expect an apology for saving Kid Flash's- wait, what?!" I shouted, completely taken by surprise. And that, my friends, is a very hard thing to do.
Green Arrow, who had been sitting on the couch, stood up and walked over to me. He put his hand on my shoulder. "We think you'd make a great addition to the team, if it's all right with your mother."
Mom smiled. "You have my permission," She said triumphantly, no doubt because my father had been completely wrong about me. Speaking of dad, the rest of the team wouldn't want to work with me if they knew that I was a villain's kid. I knew my mother would disagree with this, but...
"One condition," I said. "You don't tell the team who I am, who my family is." I could easily sense my mother's disagreement at the idea. But I wasn't gonna change my mind.
"Your private life is your business," Bat said.
Green Arrow smiled at me. "Not like you'd be the first hero with a secret identity. We'll introduce you as my new protege and my niece. Hey, we're both blond.
I grinned a grin worthy of the Cheshire Cat. "Then I'm in! I'm so in!" Talk about falling down a rabbit hole! This is my kind of Wonderland!
Ok, so I'm here like six or seven months or so after I wrote this, and this makes me cringe a little. I got better, I promise. These start getting good around Hear Me Part One, So please give me another chance even if you hate this.