Chapter 14: One brother at a time

The shrill laughter jolted her out of reverie. Her eyelids flew opened. Rush of memories came to her in a sudden. The mission! Talia's mission given to her? Tibet. The Outlaws. Jason. Kori. Roy. Damian. Dick.

She glanced down to see what was bothering her. She froze. Oh god. The cold air rushing through her made her body numb. The sword lodged in her stomach was literally non-existent for the moment. However…

She craned her neck to see below her. One. Athena is tightly gripping her ankle and laughing manically. Her clone kept repeating the same deranged phrases. 'finally done it, we can die together artemis!' Two. They were falling. Deep and fast.

Artemis leaned forward to reach for Athena's shoulder. Their positions switched with her on top and her clone bellow her. She didn't know how long she was falling for but it feels like an eternity.

It was only mere seconds that she's able to assess what kind of land they were to land. She looked almost relieved, but she wasn't out of the danger yet.

"This is the end game Athena!" Artemis yelled, gripping her clone's shoulders tightly. Then as quick as she possibly could, she ripped off the golden necklace from Athena. Immediately, her clone's face changed and Artemis felt like she was staring at herself.

Athena smirked. "You win." She leaned towards Artemis and whispered one last thing before Artemis reeled herself away from her.

"What are you talking about?!" Artemis demanded.

Athena roared in laughter as Artemis with no choice braced for impact as the water devoured them.

.

She fluttered her eyes open, blinking away from the bright lights. She looked to her left and to her right. A hospital?

And she looked down to see the necklace around her neck. The only piece of Athena. She couldn't help but think what happen to her? With that kind of impact diving into the water, the clone should be dead. She should be dead too. How the hell did she survive?

"Athena, you're lucky that you survived that fall."

Artemis fearfully turned to the familiar voice. "What?"

She glances around one more time. She was really in a hospital. Her pain had subsided. There were stitches on her stomach and a few bandages around her body. Then she reached up to the necklace she wore before she fell into the body of water.

The League of Assassins must've found her and thought she was Athena. Luckily, they saved her life. Unfortunately, she's stuck with them under the guise of her clone.

Just. Great.

.

"Even the computer can't crack it."

Artemis sighed as she leaned back against the chair. She'd barely arrived home. Damian threatened her with a knife earlier. Not that she blamed him. She knew he'd recognize his sword anywhere. Plus how Damian is protecting the family? How cute.

She convinced him that she's here as family. She could never be the enemy. Never.

Then the two had a talk. How the manor went into major changes. Jason visited often to train Damian and Stephanie. Dick moved out to Blüdhaven. Tim is Robin.

After that she put him to sleep. And now she's here in the Batcave, waiting for Batman to arrive.

She didn't need to wait long as she heard the loud engine roaring inside the cave. Artemis made her way to the nearest rail and wait. The car comes into view. The door above opened revealing Batman and Robin as they jumped out.

"Oh my gosh, Stephanie?"

The blonde clad in Robin's outfit whisks her masks off. Her eyes bugged out and rubbed it just to check that she wasn't hallucinating. "Art-! Artemis!" She stammered, before proceeding to slap the older blonde. Then Stephanie threw herself at her. "Oh my god! You're real!"

Batman—Bruce removed his cowl. It's been five years since she last saw him without the mask. He gives her a rare smile. "Welcome back." But the unsaid words of 'we have to talk' lingered in the air.

Once Stephanie withdrew from Artemis, she grabbed her by the shoulders. "Artemis, we have so much catching up to do! Like how are you not dead?!"

Artemis smiled weakly. She honestly didn't know how the family will react to her being the enemy the whole time as the guise of Tigress. "Steph, let's talk later tonight. Go get a shower cause you stink!" She joked.

The little blonde pouted then sniffed her clothes. Her unpleasant face agreed with her. "Fine! I'll be back!"

"Oh, don't tell anyone I'm… back." Artemis called out.

Stephanie pouted. "But why not? Everyone will be so happy!"

"I know, but… let's keep this on a down low. Let me stay dead for a little while longer."

The blonde Robin weirdly looks at her before agreeing to her wishes. Then she went up to the stairs.

Artemis waited until she heard the soft click of the door closing. Bruce made himself comfortable in his chair. He had his arms crossed as if he's waiting for an explanation from her. There was an awkward silence before Bruce turns to the computer to type in a few things. A screen cap showing her dead body.

"We found this body near a village in Tibet."

A shiver went crawling in her spine. Oh god. They just dumped her body in the middle of nowhere. "You buried her?"

Bruce nodded. "Under your name. I ran a blood test and it didn't match your blood work."

"It didn't? But how? She's my identical clone!"

He typed in a few things in his computer. A few more screens showed up. "This blood shows that her DNA was altered. Whatever Cadmus done to her, her DNA explicitly changed."

"Don't think you were the only one altered!"

She frowned. Now this was bothering her more than ever. Five years and she still doesn't have an answer. Athena's words lingered on like an ethereal being haunting her. "Lady—" she coughed. "Talia sent me here for a mission." She confessed. "After the surprise attack at the summit, the Great On—Ra's didn't recover well from the Lazarus Pit."

Bruce caught on easily. "He's going to use Damian's body as his replacement."

"Right. Talia doesn't want Damian's fate for a vessel for Ra's so she sent me here to protect him." Today was her first on the job. She can say it's going well despite the fact she's not really watching him.

"Thank you. And Artemis, I'm really happy to see you back into this family." Bruce said, giving her a smile. "Now go get some sleep. You'll have a lot more explaining to do with the rest of the boys."

.

Her morning didn't start out so bad. She didn't sleep at all.

Sleep is for the weak!

"You look hideous. Ever heard of putting on a makeup before?"

Artemis made a face at Damian. She stuck her tongue out. "Shut up." She replied grumpily. She made it to the dining table only to find it half filled. It was missing its older brothers and Damian looked lonely. "Where's Tim?"

Damian huffed and crossed his arms. "With the team. He's off in a mission, but he mostly stays in the watchtower afterwards."

"Oh." Well shit talk about mission impossible. There is no way she can sneak in up there. If only she didn't blow up the mountain. She'll have to think another way contacting him. "What about Jason?"

"-tt- Todd only comes for my training schedule. He's busy with his own team."

"Dick…?"

"He adopted a new city to defend. He hasn't come home since."

Artemis stayed quiet. She didn't expect the family to drift apart so easily. But it's been five long years. She heaved a long sigh as if she'd been holding it for a long time. Then she gestured at Damian to join her at the table.

She might as well start reconnecting with one brother at a time.

It was around lunchtime that she decided to visit Tim (not really 'visit'). This time, Stephanie got her to help. It's been a while since Tim visited and Artemis figured Steph and Tim must've gotten closer. Maybe even closer…

She smirked.

Stephanie huffed and crossed her arms. "Just FYI, I like someone else!"

"Sure. You keep telling yourself that." Hearing the little blonde's frustrated cry made Artemis snicker. But once the computer announces the arrival of Robin, she quickly quieted down and returned to her hiding spot.

"Steph, I got here as quickly as I can! Is Bruce alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Where's the demon?"

When Stephanie didn't respond, it finally hit Tim when he noticed the faint smile on her lips. "Oh my god! You tricked me! You know I had to go—"

"Tim." Artemis popped out from her hiding spot, refraining Tim from saying any more. Though Stephanie was smiling in the outside, she knew that the girl was hurting inside. "You've grown."

Said boy stepped away from her. The look on his face said everything. The next moment however didn't surprise her when Tim jumped in front of Stephanie to protect her from Artemis. "Get away from her Steph!"

Stephanie looked alarmed. "Wait, Tim! That's really Artemis!"

That didn't seem to lower his guard. "How do you know that's not her other twin?"

"Because Bruce ran tests!" She retorted.

Tim still didn't believe him but Artemis spoke up. "Or I could tell Stephanie here about that one time. You know from seven years ago? How you managed to embarrassed yourself in front of the whole party because you were—" Tim clasped his hand around Artemis mouth.

"Ok. I believe you." He hissed, his ears red in embarrassment. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone else!" He whispered.

Artemis grinned widely as she removed the hand from her mouth. "I didn't feel like being attack, so..."

"Ugh, god. You are worse than Jason." Tim pouted. He sat at the nearest chair to take it in. He stared at the blonde for the longest time, hoping this was not a dream. "We buried your clone?"

Artemis frowned. "Yeah. She's the one who took my fall from the mountains. But even then, I was still severely injured. But enough about me. I need you to do a favor for me actually." She took out a small USB drive and handed it to Tim. "I managed to hack into Cadmus private data. But the file is encrypted so—"

"I'll do it." He swiped the drive from her hands. "I'm guessing you want to keep this private between the three of us?"

She nodded. She was about to say something before Stephanie screaming about Damian messing with her phone. Again. Artemis smiled, thanking the blonde silently in her mind. She needs to make-up with her later. But for now, her priority is well protect Damian at all cost.

"You know, when you 'died', the house never felt the same anymore." Tim said, his voice cracking. "Dick changed. He hardly stayed in the house anymore. Jason stayed to watch over Damian, Stephanie and I."

Artemis smiled weakly. She grabbed Tim by the shoulder and engulfed him into a tight hug. She didn't realize the extent of her death would destroy them this much. "I'm here now."

oh la la. next chapter: jason and the team. or team first then jason and dick? or put it all in one chapter?!