IAmFoundAgain

I read your review while going to bed and gave a mixture of laughs and cries for joy as tears leaked out of my eyes. Thank you ever so much.

Thank you for finally getting me to write some more, sorry it took so long. I hope this is up to snuff.

In the dining hall, many people were sitting. At one particular table however, sat Artemis and the rest of the group. They were eating some food and everyone but Artemis was chatting animatedly. Artemis was preoccupied with taking in the room.

The Room was made of practically all stone. It sloped upwards with the pyramid, and skylights reached out of the sloping roof through which sunlight could be seen. Set in rows, enourmous Columns reached up to support the roof.

Various students of various ages and race were sitting around the dining hall. Artemis saw a girl with red hair and green eyes who looked like she came from the Kingdom of Tamaran. A few tables down she saw a few Martians in their true forms. They were about Artemis's own age and were conversing with a few other human students, looking completely at ease. Artemis guessed that because of all the diversity with the King's Citizens that the students didn't try to draw lines between each other, but rather tried to treat each other as brothers and sisters.

The next day, it was time for the morning exercises. Every King's citizen that had taken up residence in the compound got up and participated in a series of exercises. These exercises were spearheaded by Batman himself.

Kaldur was the Commander in training and lead the sections of the exercises that Batman did not directly run.

Today however, Batman took time to spar with each of the new students. Artemis was first. She readied her bow and stood, ready to fight. She at least expected to give Batman a run for his money. Ten minutes later and she was definitely under no more delusions that she was remotely anywhere near Batman's level. She tried to draw another arrow as Batman rushed her yet again, but he was too quick and bashed her with his shield. She fell to the ground and before she could say "pumpkin" (for whatever reason) Batman's sword was at her throat.

It hovered there a moment, then he sheathed it and helped her up. When she was standing (leaning on her own knees for support as she wheezed in and out) Batman gave his opinion.

"You rely too much on your bow. You're very good with it, maybe better than anyone I've ever seen, but when someone gets close you have trouble defending yourself. Spend an hour a day sparring with a partner from now on."

"Yes Batman."

"Now go do a circuit of all the exercises and then you may take a break."

Megan was up next. Her fight didn't even last 5 minutes. Even though she'd been practicing her swordfighting with the others on their way to Gotham, she still was very unfamiliar with the weapons. When Batman knocked her down the first time, she, acting on instinct, whipped out her hand to try and use her telekinesis. Batman frowned as nothing happened.

"Why won't my powers work?"

"Because, various people and army's use metals that are impervious to most powers. The King's armor is impervious to telekinesis. Your power is very useful, but you can become even stronger if you learn to fight and live without it."

Megan thought for a bit, and then nodded. That was one of the amazing things about Batman wasn't it, no powers to speak of, yet he could intimidate many super powered criminals.

Batman assigned Megan the same duties as Artemis, then he brought David onto the field to spar with him.

David had had a good deal of training, even though he was young. Batman placed him high above Megan, but a bit lower than Artemis. When his match ended and Batman helped him up, Batman had this to say.

"You're very passionate about your fighting. You go in full flair, all out and while this is sometimes a good thing, many times for you it's a liability. You waste your energy by throwing all of it into strike that I can easily redirect with minimal effort. All I have to do is wait while you tire yourself out with pointless attacks and when I attack, you have no energy left to defend with."

David nodded his understanding and then went off after Batman assigned him his workout duties.

After everyone was done with their assigned exercises, they were all called to the great hall for a meeting. This hall was very large, about the size of a cathedral's main worship area; in fact this was what it was. After everyone had sat down, Batman walked up to the front of the audience and mounted a raised platform. Everyone fell silent and Batman gestured to a tremendous amount of boxes and bags behind him.

"This is the charity supplies we will be doling out to the people today. To any who are new and don't know what I'm talking about, every week we receive a fresh shipment of supplies from all my contacts. These supplies are to be distributed to the poor of Gotham. We will split up into teams and each take a portion to the sections of Gotham that need it most."

He immediately began assigning teams, usually of about 10 each. The recruits going were only the older crowd, so Rein was excluded.

Batman turned to Artemis's group and said "you're going with me into the Narrows."

Something about the way everyone's voices hushed following that statement told the new recruits that the narrows wasn't exactly a nice place. Nevertheless, they loaded up their cart with supplies, (more supplies than anyone else by the way) and set off for the section of the city known as "the Narrows."

As they walked on, Megan noticed that the buildings were becoming progressively worse and more and more dilapidated.

Batman answered her question before she even had a chance to say it.

"The Narrows is a section of Gotham that is the most run down and the poorest section of the city. It's where a lot of the underground black market trafficking goes on. We're going to meet with a few of the King's Men here to help us before we go further in."

They turned a corner and sure enough, there where a few men in white armor, each had a badge on their armor that marked them as one of the King's Men. The one who seemed to be the leader turned towards Batman and his mustached face lit up.

"Batman, good to see you haven't completely left me behind yet."

"Good to see you still a live Gordon."

He gestured to the recruits "these are the new initiates."

"Ah, nice to meet you, I am the Captain of the King's Men. Captain Gordon."

They all greeted him and continued to move on into the Narrows. Once they'd finally reached it, they began handing out sacks of food at each doorway to delighted people.

As she had just finished handing a sack of food to a mother who was nearly crying with joy, Artemis noticed something move in a dark alleyway just off to the right of the house. She peered into it, and suddenly a rope flew out of the darkness and wrapped around her. She was tugged into the alleyway before she could even make a sound. Just as she prepared to cry out, a hand clapped itself over her mouth and she heard Kobra's voice his in her ear "now my little apprentice, we wouldn't want you doing that now would we?"

Artemis snarled and struggled with all her might, but she was quickly overborne by two more assailants and was soon clubbed into unconsciousness.

They had just finished with the street when Robin noticed that Artemis was missing.

"Say, had anyone seen Artemis?"

Everyone started and looked around, nobody had since about halfway down the street.

Batman's face grew grim as he gave orders.

"Kaldur, David, you two complete this run with Gordon and then hurry back to the compound, don't stop for anything unless it's serious. Megan, Robin, you're with me."

They hurried to begin checking the area.

Artemis came too a while later. She was tied to a chair in a dark room. A single solitary candle provided light. She looked around and saw that she wasn't alone. Another girl was sitting in a chair across from her with her arms crossed. The girl was dressed in green and black and had on a white mask that loosely resembled a mad grin.

"What!?" said Artemis defiantly.

"What indeed, and to think that it was you telling me not to join the bad men the last time we saw each other."

Artemis's eyes widened as comprehension dawned on her. She fumbled with the words, barely managing to say "J- . . . J- . . . Jade . . . sister?!"

The girl lifted the mask from her face to reveal a vaguely Asian looking girl with long scruffy black hair. She flashed a grin and said "in the flesh."

Artemis was 8 years old and her sister was leaving.

"Don't go, we have to keep this family from falling apart!"

Jade turned back to look at her little sister and smirked "sorry sis, I got no future here."

Her face turned serious for a moment "I do wish I could take you with me, but the messenger says that I can't bring anyone along."

"Don't leave me here alone with dad. Don't go away with those bad men!"

Jade smirked yet again "bad men, seriously Artemis you should know by now that there is no such thing as good and bad. If there really was a King like you seem to hope then why would he allow dad to keep treating us the way he does?"

Artemis looked away and muttered "I don't know."

"Exactly."

Jade was halfway through the door when she turned back and looked at her sister.

"Good luck little Arty."

Then she was gone.

Artemis looked at her sister, silently trying to get control of herself.

Cheshire spoke first "so, what happened to the idealistic little girl I left at home.

"Dad happened."

"Ah, I told you that you should've left him behind."

"Someone had to wait until mom got out of jail."

"And of course it had to be you. But you left eventually too."

Artemis was silent, her eyes were aimed at the floor now.

"Why so guilt-ridden? We both needed to get out from under our parents, so why are you so sorry for it?"

"I abandoned mom, and I went to a horrible place, just li-"

" . . . Just like me you mean."

" . . . yes."

Cheshire studied her sister, trying to gauge her emotional state.

"What I want to know is, why did you quit, from what I hear, you were doing great. You were Kobra's second in command. So why did you quit when you'd gotten so far?"

Artemis looked her sister straight in the eyes, and Cheshire saw a fire there that she'd never seen before.

"I quit because it was the right thing to do."

"Like I said last time, there is no right and wro-"

"-Wrong yeah, I remember and I don't buy it."

"What?"

"I said I don't buy that. I might've if you'd pulled it on me back in the Dragon's Army, but not anymore. I've seen the King's spirit with my own two eyes. I saw just how horrible of a person I was."

"What caused "the miraculous change of Artemis Crock?"" Cheshire asked sarcastically.

"I was about to kill a 5 year old boy."

"What?!"

"Yep, a five year old boy. He was just hiding, trying to stay alive, but when I trained an arrow on him, he wasn't afraid to die."

"What?!" Cheshire exclaimed with even greater confusion.

"He was just like I was when you left me. He was completely innocent and didn't deserve to die."

Cheshire said nothing. Artemis's gaze softened as she looked at her older sister.

"I'm sorry our family got so messed up."

"It wasn't your fault. Not by any means was it ever your fault."

"Maybe not, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm sorry."

Both were silent as they contemplated each other, not as captor and prisoner, but as long-lost sisters.

"You know, we could be sisters again."

Cheshire snorted "fat chance, Kobra wants to destroy you and the others by any means necessary and I was chosen along with two others to work for him. He'll eventually order me to kill you if you don't recant." By the end of her speech her voice had gone from sarcastic to slightly moaning. It was obvious that, despite all her training as a remorseless killer, a good deal of her still cared for her sister.

"You could join us."

At this, Cheshire threw back her head and gave a loud laugh.

"Why would I want to go to a tyrant like the King? Besides, they'd just kill me rather than let me set one foot inside their borders."

Cheshire saw that Artemis had an extremely knowing grin on her face.

"What? What did I say?!" Cheshire demanded.

"Exactly what I said."

"Huh?"

"When I was first invited to join the King's Citizens those where the same exact words I said."

"They were?"

"Yep, and do you know what, I found out that Kobra was the real tyrant and the King's Citizens were more than happy to let me traipse around anywhere I liked inside their borders. They accepted me happily and I've never felt freer in my whole life."

Cheshire was silent, digesting this news.

"We're all one family. True we aren't perfect, but their better than mom and dad ever where. You could have a family again. One of the first things you could do would be to let me go."

Batman was in the process of examining the scene of the crime when he heard something. He quickly dodged and a dart went sailing past him to imbed in a crate. He heard a curse and immediately grabbed a dagger and threw it in the direction of the curse. He was rewarded by an even louder profanity behind shouted as a man in a skintight lunged at him, with a knife sticking out of his shoulder. Batman swung his foot and it connected with the man's head.

Robin and Megan were about to help but there attention was immediately grabbed by a man with a large hook (more like an anchor) grafted to one of his arms. He immediately swung out, trying to hit the two initiates. Megan took to the skies and Robin drew his weapons and tried to get in close.

Batman's fight, if you could call it that, was wrapped up with Batman knocking his opponent out by rapping him smartly on the head with the hilt of his sword. He immediately turned and threw a Batarang that hit the other assassin in the back of the head.

They were about to tie up the two when smoke suddenly filled the alleyway. When it cleared, the two were gone. Batman's eyes narrowed as he searched the alleyways.

Kobra returned to the hideout, he hadn't really expected to win; he just wanted to test the legendary Batman. He hadn't been disappointed, he might need more help. He was just thinking that he might have just the right place to go when he noticed that Cheshire was sitting on a chair and there was no Artemis to be seen.

Kobra slammed his palms down on a table and spoke in a very clear and menacing voice "where . . . is . . . she?"

"She overpowered me" Cheshire said, gesturing to various cuts and bruises across her body.

Kobra blinked, and then his face darkened. He turned to the other two assasins he'd hired.

"Stay with her until I'm am back, I should be back week."

He gave one final glare at Cheshire and left the building. Cheshire simply stared the other two with a slightly humorous look on her face, as if challenging them to try and force her to do anything.

Artemis dropped down from a rooftop and walked towards Batman. He held his sword at the ready until he saw it was her.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, but we should get going, I'll explain on the way."

Cheshire considered Artemis's offer. Then she stood up and drew a dagger. She began giving herself shallow cuts and banging herself.

"What are you doing?!"

"Well, it's gotta look convincing."

She went around behind Artemis and cut her bonds.

"For the fact that we're sisters I'm letting you go. Just be careful, Kobra isn't going to give up on you easily."

Artemis nodded and fetched her gear. She turned towards her sister and smiled.

"Thanks big sis."

She was about to jump out the window when she heard Cheshire say "be careful out there, little Arty."

Artemis smiled as she leapt out of the window.

3 days later

The underwater city of Atlantis was truly a wonder to behold. But Kobra was not however interested in the architecture; he was only concerned with someone he could use that lived here. He was brought into the throne room. It crossed his mind how grateful he was that his armor allowed him to breath underwater.

Kobra grinned as he stood before King Orin of Atlantis.

"Speak visitor." The King commanded. He was currently considering an alliance with the Dragon's Realm but something about them made him uneasy.

Kobra spoke, his voice perfectly suited to his dramatic statement.

"Oh wise and noble King Orin. I am seeking a dangerous traitor to me, she was lured to the side of the King."

"What of it, why have you brought this before me?"

"The traitor in question is being aided by none other than your former protégé KALDUR'AHM!"

Gasps were heard from many assembled, the King's brow merely furrowed as he was reminded of one he'd once considered to be the closest thing he had to a son.

"What do you ask of me Kobra?"

"I am not prepared to fight them; I need the strength of one who knew Kaldur'Ahm. I need one of his friends to aid me in defeating the evil King's Citizens. Even now they battle in the streets of Gotham City with no regards to how many lives may be destroyed in the crossfire. They eagerly butcher any who would stand against them."

A new voice spoke up "I will help him!"

All eyes turned to young Garth who stood up.

"Garth, are you sure you wish to do this?" a girl who sat beside Garth grabbed his arm.

Kobra internally grinned, but outside he played the part of concern and humility "yes, are you sure you wish to fight your best friend."

"He is my friend no longer, but a traitor. I must bring honor to Atlantis by bringing him to justice."

"Then I will accept you if you desire this so much."

"So be it. Garth, you shall assist Kobra in his mission and shall bring justice to the traitor Kaldur'Ahm while doing so. So say I, King Orin of Atlantis."

Kobra grinned in anticipation.

Garth was packing his things when his girlfriend, Tula came in.

"Garth are certain you wish to do this?"

"You still miss him don't you?"

Tula looked at the floor and muttered "yes, I still miss our friend, I hope you do as well."

Garth brought his hand to her cheek and caressed her.

"I am greatly grieved for Kaldur. Make no mistake, I hate what I must do, but I must do it. He betrayed Atlantis to those who attacked us."

He pulled her in for a final embrace before he headed out to meet Kobra who would lead him to Gotham City and to his destiny.

The Dove watched them go. It knew of Kobra's intent to use Garth to incapacitate and torture Kaldur with his past. He also knew of Cheshire and Artemis's relations. And just as he was reminding Cheshire of how much she loved her sister, he would also show her how much she needed him. He also new of the small part in Garth's heart that doubted, the small part that wondered if Kaldur was right.

The Dove cooed and flew off. In spite of all the schemes of the enemy, it was foretold that one day, all would bow to the King, that was not in question, the only real one was, whether or not you would bow willingly.

The Dove would save all he could, even in spite of any plan the enemy made.