This is written per MissSecret's request. Hope you like it!

High T for rape, not extremely graphic, violence, and a few bad words

Disclaimer: I do not, and probably never will, own Young Justice.

Comfort

The first sensation I processed as I dragged myself from unconsciousness was pain, a pounding in the back of my head. Groaning quietly, I tried to touch it, only to realize that my wrists were bound together behind my back by what felt like metal chains. My ankles were treated in the same manner.

Struggling to maintain calm, I quickly surveyed my surroundings.

Warehouse. No doubt about that. Probably one of the abandoned ones on Gotham's outskirts. Now just how the Hell did I get here?

"Well, well, well. Sleepin' Beauty's finally awake."

"Terror," I growled as the meta-human stepped forward from the darkest corner.

He'd attacked me when I was getting home from Star City. The memory came flooding back, how I'd been so hyped from that night that I hadn't had my guard up, how he took me down with one blow. Damn it, damn it, damn it! How'd I let this happen?

"Y'know," he mused, approaching me, "I was expectin' more ofa fight from you, being Sportsmaster's daughter and all."

"Untie me and see what kind of fight I can put up!"

He shook his head, explaining, "Naw. First night as a free man. I wanna have me some fun."

"You got really fricking lucky that this jail break worked," I spat, pushing my hands against the floor to get myself into a sitting position. "You'll get sent back to Belle Reve. You and all the rest."

"Maybe." He shrugged. "But not yet."

He stared at me. The dim light from the full moon illuminated the lust in his eyes.

"Yer pretty."

I had no idea these two simple words could plague me with overwhelming fear. Clenching my jaw, I remained silent but began desperately working against the chains.

"Yer real pretty," he continued, kneeling beside me.

God, no, please God no.

"Don't you dare," I hissed.

Laughing a low, husky chuckle that sounded like a dog's bark, he whispered, "What you gon' do, little girl?"

He moved as though to stroke a piece of hair from my eyes, but I quickly jerked away, baring my teeth.

"A feisty one." A grin crossed his face. "I like that."

"I swear I'll kill you, you son of a bitch."

Grin warping into a twisted snarl, he pulled me closer and sneered, "I'd like to see you try."

Animal instincts and adrenaline kicking in, I reared my head back and slammed it into his skull. Recovering faster than he did, I rolled onto my knees and crawled as fast as I could.

Stay traught, stay traught. Just need to get away, or hide, or something. I'm gonna be fine, just fine—

A kick to the back of the legs brought me to the hard floor and back to reality. Grabbing me by the ponytail, Terror forced me to my knees and jerked my head up so I was looking at him. He slapped me and growled, "You think yer so tough, huh? I can change that. I can change that real fast."

I responded by spitting in his face.

Snarling, he wiped off the saliva. "You gon' regret that."

He threw me down, knocking the wind from my body. He took the opportunity to pin my shoulders and straddled me. Ignoring my protests, he pressed his lips to mine. A shudder of repulsion ran through me, and I bit him as hard as I could. Blood ran along my tongue, my teeth, but I relished it because it proved I still had some sort of control.

Howling in pain and rage, he pulled away and backhanded me, hard enough to break my nose. My blood mingled with his.

"You bitch!" he shouted, slamming my head against the floor. "I swear to God I'll kill you!"

Bring it on, you stupid bastard. I'm not scared of you. You think I'm just gonna lie here and let you use me like I'm your personal sex toy? Hell no. C'mon, kill me. I fricking dare you.

Those thoughts refused to manifest themselves into words. Because they weren't really mine.

They belonged to the girl I thought I was, the girl I wanted to be. Unbreakable and unafraid and unwilling to let myself be degraded, no matter the consequences.

Lying there, under his weight, completely helpless, I realized I wasn't that girl. Not even close.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, and I hated how weak I sounded.

"Good girl," he cooed. "You gon' listen now, right?"

All I could do was nod.

Victorious, he resumed kissing me, and I closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to look at him. I tried to pretend it wasn't him, that it was a certain red-head who was cocky and bull-headed and sweet, but I couldn't pretend for very long because that boy would never be so aggressive, so abrasive. It wouldn't hurt if I was with him.

Terror got bored soon enough with just kissing, so his hands ran along my stomach, up to my shirt. I closed my eyes tighter, as though that would make everything stop. He ripped off my uniform, then my sports bra. I shivered, a response to sudden exposure to cold air and utter disgust. As he inspected me, murmured dark, dirty things, I started to run, as far and as fast as I could. I wanted—needed—a Wonderland, someplace with friends and laughter and hope.

By the time he was working off the lower half of my uniform, I was already down the rabbit hole.

Megan's making cookies, and they're not burnt this time and she's so excited. Wally and Zatana are having another debate over magic, and Zatana's obviously winning because she's a magician but Wally's not giving up. Kaldur and Raquel are "sparring," but what they're really doing is flirting because anyone can see that they like each other. Connor is watching the static on the television, and Roy's trying to explain that you're supposed to watch shows with plots and characters, and it's funny because they're both getting agitated but not really. Robin's showing off his acrobatic skills, cackling like normal.

Now Jade's here, and Mom, and Jade is telling me that we might be enemies, but we're sisters first and that she doesn't want me dead, and Mom's telling me I can be more than what's expected, that genetics is not destiny. I'm a hero, her hero.

"Hey, dude, you here?"

Of course. Cam. He's here too, because he's my best friend, the only one who has always had my back. He's got that goofy grin on his face, and he's saying that I'm smart and brave and perfect, like he always would whenever I complained about Dad—

"Jesus Christ, what are you doing?"

Terror stood up, and I tumbled from Wonderland as my body exploded in a throbbing agony. Making himself presentable, he turned around to face Cameron, staring at him wide-eyed and disbelieving. "Finally showed, Ice Cube. Well, you can have a go, if you want. She's real—"

Any further discussion was cut off by an icicle to the face. "You're sick," Cameron growled, finishing his shift to ice form.

Terror sneered, "You're pathetic, you know that?"

"Not as pathetic as you," he objected, a solid wall of ice crashing into the other boy. Terror easily broke it in half, but it distracted him long enough for Cam to launch another icicle, this one at a very appropriate place. As Terror bent over in pain, Cam encased him in ice, layer upon layer until there was no chance he could escape. For good measure, he kicked him in the head, the only part exposed, hard enough to knock him out.

Silence. I was torn between crying his name and just crying.

He slowly resumed normality, his icy covering falling and melting away. His eyes still locked on his opponent, he murmured, "Look, um, I'm not…I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I swear. Do you…uh…want my help? Or, uh, I'll get someone, if you want."

Tears burned the back of my eyes. "Cam."

His body stiffened. "Artemis?"

"I need your help," I said, saying it quickly because if I didn't I was completely going to lose it. "Can you get the chains off my wrists and ankles?"

"Yeah," he replied, turning around. He looked at me only a second before dropping his gaze to the floor. Removing his shirt, he walked my way and draped it over me, covering me as best he could, before freezing the chains and breaking them.

I wasted no time in dressing, jerking on his shirt because Terror had completely destroyed mine. Glancing at Cameron, respectfully concentrating on the opposite wall, I muttered, "It's okay now."

We stared at each other for a moment, then he whispered, "I'm so sorry, Artemis."

His voice was filled with pain, and his icy blue eyes were glistening with tears. That sent me over the edge.

A broken wail escaped me, sounding more animal than human, and I crumbled against him, burying my head in his chest, wonderfully cool against my bruised face. His arms wrapped around me, and it was familiar and comforting and safe.

I wept for what felt like hours, until I had no more tears left. Taking a deep, shaky breath, I asked, "Why are you here?"

"Dad teamed me and Terror together," he explained. "This was our rendezvous site. We were supposed to meet up right after the break, but I got backtracked in Virginia." He paused, then continued, "You're…you're gonna be okay, Artemis."

I shook my head and whimpered, "I'm not."

"You will be." Tentatively, he lifted my chin so we were eye-to-eye. "You are the bravest and strongest person I know."

"Then why did I let him do this to me?"

"You didn't let him do anything. He forced you. This is his fault, okay? He hurt you. He made you do it."

"I could have—"

"This is not my fault. Say it."

"Cam—"

"Say. It."

"This is not my fault."

"Now keep saying it until you believe it."

I did as he said. The words began blurring together, becoming one unending chant, a mystic incantation that freed me from myself.

We sat in silence for a while more, then I said, "I need something."

"Anything."

"Don't become your father. Don't be like them."

And he knew I was asking him to break with the villains and join the heroes. I expected some hesitance—he'd never had anyone to counteract the beatings and bitter words he got from his dad—but there was none. "Okay."

"Thank you." My voice was barely audible. God, I wanted so badly to sleep.

Cameron seemed to sense this. "Let's get you home."

He lifted me up, bridal style, and began the long walk. I mumbled my address before slipping in and out of consciousness.

When we got to the apartment, Cam managed to climb up the fire escape and jimmy my bedroom window open. Only then did he let me down.

"I'm gonna shower," I told him, stopping to grab clean clothes. That's when I noticed I was limping.

I blasted the hot water and washed myself over and over again, trying to erase the feeling of his hands and his lips and himself. All I succeeded in was cleaning off all the blood.

Once dressed, I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked the same, except for a swollen nose and a purplish tinge on my right cheek, but I wasn't. I couldn't be. The girl who I used to stare at was cool and strong and brave. This girl, right now, was the opposite. She was weak. So unbelievably weak and pathetic and—

"No," I whispered. Tommy Terror wouldn't break me. I wouldn't let him. I was fricking hero, damn it. I repeated my chant, over and over and over, until I believed it again.

When I walked into my room, the covers were pulled down and my old teddy bear, normally hidden at the top of my closet, was propped on the pillow. Cameron was sitting on Jade's bed.

"How'd you know where my bear was?" I asked, tossing him his shirt.

He shrugged. "You told me before."

And in spite of everything, I felt my lips twitching into a smile. Leave it to him to remember something like that.

As I lay down, Cam came over and tucked me in before gently kissing my forehead. Without me even needing to ask, he went back to Jade's bed. Of course he wouldn't leave me.

"So there's this chick, Alice, right?" His voice was calm and soothing. "And she's all mad at her mom 'cause she wants her to marry some real creepy guy. Or clean her room. Something like that. So she's outside just stewing when this white rabbit comes by, ranting about being late and all, and Alice, well, she's not all that bright, so she thinks it's a good idea to follow him…"

I let his voice carry me to sleep. There would be a lot to worry about the next day—finding some excuse to tell my mom why I came home so late, explaining about the ex-convict-turned hero in my room. Right then, though, reality could be postponed.

Right then, I ran to Wonderland.