Please forgive me for how long it took to update this. I am so sorry, but without further adieu, here is the next chapter of Our Life.

This boy in front of her was not the Damian who had cried when a stray dog had killed the friendly ally cat that lived behind their building.

This Damian was older, and he had no compassion in his eyes that were color of rain. He didn't bat an eye as he cut the heads off one person after another, not even young children.

Artemis tried to move, tried to tell him to stop, that he didn't need to do this. They had changed things so that he could be good, like Batman or Green Arrow. But she couldn't move or even open her mouth.

She had to sit and watch as an endless pile of bodies grew at his fee t, an ever growing pool of blood encircling her frozen form. Artemis could see the faces of every fallen victim: Mrs. Dapney, Brad, Conner, and even Robin's cowl covered eyes stared at her. All of their mouths moved in unison, "Why Artemis? Why did you let this happen? You could have saved him-us, but you failed." Over and over the mouths repeated the words, "Why Artemis? Why," and she didn't have an answer for them.

Mt. Justice

3:30 a.m.

Artemis was fine with never sleeping again after that nightmare. Every time she closed her eyes is all she could see were rivers of blood in the reflection of Damian's eyes.

She ran her fingers through his dark locks in an attempt to reassure herself. Damian will never become a monster like that, she told herself. But the image seemed stuck. She felt restless, like she needed some air.

Carefully not to wake him Artemis slipped out of bed. Silently she made her way to the caves back entrance. Rule number 12 on the special list Robin gave her was 'No leaving the cave unattended or otherwise instructed, ' but she planned on being back inside before anyone else woke up, so why worry about it?

The early morning air was chilly, but not unbearable. The waves gently crashing on the shore did little to ease her busy mind though.

Damian was two and a half years old. Not even old enough to completely understand why she took him, she got him away in time. That dream was just a formation of her deepest fears, nothing more.

She wasn't very persuasive; not even for herself. She kept on seeing his unblinking eyes, thinking of all the faces she saw, feeling the blood around her.

Right then Artemis would have done just about anything for Talia to be with her. She remembered when she was younger and Talia would brush her hair and tell her everything would be alright, that's what she wanted now. But Talia wasn't here, for all Artemis knew she would never see her again.

When someone dropped down on the sand next to her, Artemis jumped. She hadn't heard anyone approach her.

Must be Robin.

He didn't say a word as he sat in the sand next to her and gazed out at the water. He crossed his arms over his knees and rested his head on them.

Artemis was bull-dozed by the urge to take off his sun glasses and look into the eyes she had never seen.

She settled for a question, "What's got your goat Boy Wonder?" She was careful to keep her eyes only on the rolling waves.

His head turned slightly in her direction, just enough for him to see her out of the corner of his eye. "I could ask you the same," he said.

She dug her toes into the cool sand. She wasn't going to force him to tell her something if he didn't want to.

"Artemis?" he asked after what felt like ages of silence.

Instead of responding she looked over at him, doing her best to keep all emotion from her face. Pushing thoughts of her nightmare as far away as she could.

Even though she couldn't see through his glasses, she knew his eyes were locked with hers. She didn't look away.

Robin took that as a good sign. "I need to ask you a question." He told her. The intensity of his voice made Artemis' stomach twist into tight knots.

"Damian isn't yours is he?" He said the words slowly. Like he already knew the answer to the question, but he wanted to hear it from her, "I mean, you're not his biological mother."

Artemis filled her lungs with air; preparing to rattle off some bullshit lie and tell him that he was her biological son, but is all that came from her lips was a whispered, "Yeah."

She looked down. Best case scenario- Robin would be able to help her protect him. Worst case scenario- Robin would tell Batman and they would take Damian away and put her in jail like they should have when they first found her.

Robin was both relived and confused by her answer. He didn't know what to think now.

"Then whose kid is he?" He asked. So he didn't know the whole story. The fact only eased the knot in her stomach a little.

Instead of answering, she picked up a handful of sand and watched as it ran through her fingers. 'Kinda like my life.' She thought bitterly.

Robin took her hand into his and laced their fingers together and gently and lowered them to the ground without letting go. With this action he reassured her that he wouldn't tell anyone, not yet.

Her eyes glued to their conjoined hands, "I couldn't let him become what they wanted him to," her voice broken, at the end, "I couldn't let him be what they made me."

Robin hand slid from hers and lightly rapped around her shoulders in a side hug. He spoke softly, "No one holds your past against you," he paused for a moment, "Except, maybe Batman."

Artemis laughed and pulled away, "Come on Rob. We have a mission halfway across the world tomorrow." The conversation was over for now. Later she was pretty sure that he would try and get a little more information out of her, but for now he would let it be.

Pushing herself to her feet and started towards the cave, Robin trailing right behind her. Later she would laugh a little about the fact that Batman had a kid with a woman with a past twice as deadly as her own.

Unknown Location

Unknown Time

Artemis' was chained to a wall and she was blindfolded; that was the first thing she realized when she woke up. The last thing she remembered was Sportsmaster and Cheshire looming over and Zatanna telling her just to hold on a little longer through the mind link. Then everything was black.

She heard a door open somewhere to her left, "I now your awake Artemis," Artemis hadn't heard that voice in just over two years.

A voice that just yesterday she would have done just about anything to hear; to reassure her that everything would be fine, but now it only made her more scared.

It was the voice of Talia al Ghul.

Hope you liked it! And if you would be so so kind, please review!