Just Perfect

    Robin was sitting on the couch, watching TV when Wally dashed into the room.  
"Have you seen Artemis? I can't find her.  There's this letter Batman had me pick
up for her."
    "Nope, sorry.  Haven't seen your true love around much." Robin smirked at
Wally's glare. "Not since the- um, incident..." His smile faded as he looked away.
  About one month ago, Artemis had arrived at her appartment to find her father
standing above the mangled corpse of her mother.

    'I've got her!' Megan's thoughts exploded in the speedster's head. 'She's by
the zeta-tubes!'

    'Thanks, Megan!' Wally ran off and was before Artemis in a heartbeat. "Here
ya' go. Picked this up for you." He said. Her only response was a slight nod as
she began to walk off. "Artemis," She turned to face the young hero. "You might
want to talk to miss M, she's really worried." Wally saw two emotions cross
Artemis' face. The first was relief, almost shock, but was then replaced by
saddness.

"Well, you can tell her I'm fine." She said, turnning away again.

"Arty-"

    "Just- please. If you need me- no, if there's a mission, I'll be in my new
room, unpacking. And don't call me that." Wally caught a glipse of a wet streak
traveling down her face as the blond archer walked off.

Two Weeks Later...

    Artemis was actually happy. She had no idea why, but she was smiling as
her, Megan, and Superboy put up christmas decorations all over Mt. Justice.
The martian was hovering above the tree, wrapping tinsel around it, Conner
was jumping from wall to wall, pinning up bows, and Artemis was attaching
ribbons to the ends of her arrows and firing them so that they wrapped around
the room.

"Mistletoe. Nice." She turned to see Wally enter the room. " Oh, and I see
Arty here must have helped." He smirked.

"Hi, Wally!" Artemis responded.

"So how did Megan manipulate you into doing this?" KF continued.

"Um, Wally? Artemis offered to help..." Miss Martian said. Wally was dumbstruck.

"Arty... offered... to help?" Artemis started laughing at his exppression.

"Yes, I did! Now do you want a sugar cookie or not? Oh, I made them so-"
She didn't finnish her sentence before he was sitting on the loveseat
with a cookie in his hand.

"Mmmm... Not bad, blondie! Maybe you should host your own cooking show! I
can almost see it now, 'Baking for Blonds!' " He started laughing at his
own joke which wasn't all that funny in the first place.

"Maybe I will!" Artemis replied to his teasing. Her joy didn't fail her.

"What, no smart-aleck comeback? No witty response?"

"Merry Christmas to you, too, Wally!" Artemis started walking into the
kitchen, and left the surprised ginger to get her chocolate chip cookies
out of the oven. "Megan! The second batch is done! Help me get the next
one in!" Megan flew in and once Artemis had the hot tray out, the next one
was levitated in. "Thanks!"

"Sure, oh and Artemis! We're out of eggs, could you go get some more?"

"On it!" And the archer was headed towards the Zeta-tubes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    When Wally was sure Artemis was gone, he headed towards her room.
He wanted to know why she was so happy. When he got there, it was
unlocked. Artemis never left the mountain without locking her door!
Wally had been in here before, when he had kicked the door 'till it busted
open, so nothing was new... Except this! On her nightstand, there was a
booklet with a plain green binding. The speedster picked it up and began
leafing through the pages. Dang it! Nothing was there but a bunch of
sketches and one phrase written in the middle of a blank page. "Code,
C2300B.0335? Yeesh, mouthfull." He mummbled to himself.

    "CODE C2300B.0335 ACTIVATED" He jumped as the computer replied to
the command code. Suddenly, the wall began to slide away, revealing a
door. Wally opened it to find a giant room filled with paints,
paintings, canvases, sketches, and drawings. He entered the room,
walking up to the nearest easle to examine the painting on it. To his
surprise, it was one of himself running, and was amasingly accurate. He
moved on to the next. It was the shadow of a couple in each other's arms.
Huh. The next was of the Sportsmaster, half his body consumed in shadows.
Wally shuddered and moved on. This one was of a young, small, blond girl
sitting in a dark corner with her arms wrapped around her knees, pulling
them closer to her chest. All you could see of her face was one of her
stormy, blue-grey eyes peeking over her hand. Then, there was
one of the same girl, Sportsmaster was behind her with his hand on her
shoulder. Tears were streaming down the little girl's face. There was
another of himself, and one of the entire Justice League. The rest were
as dark and joyless as the little girl in them. Here, Sportsmaster was
whipping the girl, another, she was a bit older and was in the middle of
a dark room surrounded by collapsed bodies. There were a few more, but Wally
chose not to look until he reached the most recent two. The first was happy.
It was of the whole team, all smiles, even Artemis. The second one was- well,
troubling to the highest point. It was another of the team, but they were
all lying on the ground in pools of red. Artemis was on the ground in front
of Wally's corpse, crying. She had a bloody knife in her hand. Sportsmaster
was standing behind her. Wally tore his eyes from the horrifying scene and
ran from the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Artemis found out why she was so happy when she saw a family out shopping.
The smiling couple's young daughter was running back and forth, squealing
with joy as the snow fell around her. Artemis smiled, thinking about how lucky
that little girl was. The archer also got some of her Christmas shopping done.
She found Megan a cute red dress that flowed past her knees and found Wally
a $55 pair of red, orange, and yellow running shoes. They had a red lightning
bolt going down the side. Yeah, she knew it was pretty cheesy, but she got
them anyways. On the way home, Artemis stopped to grab everyone a hot cocoa.

    "I'm back! Who wants hot cocoa?" The blond archer took off her scarf and
walked into the kitchen to find Robin had arrived and was sitting at the
table with everyone else. "Oh, I'm sorry, Rob! I didn't get you one! Here,
you can have mine." She said guiltily.

    "Wha- oh, um, ok. How much was all this?" Robin asked her, pulling out
his wallet. Artemis took the money he offered her and placed it on the
table in front of him.
    "It's on me. Here's your eggs, Megan!" The boy wonder shot a questioning
glance in Kid Flash's direction, who replied to it with a simple shrug of
his shoulders and grabbed his hot cocoa."I'm kind of tired, Megan. I think
I'll go relax for a while. Oh! Thanks for letting me help with the baking!"
And Artemis was gone. She wasn't lying. She honestly was tired and wanted
to be alone for a while, but didn't even make it to her hallway before
Batman's voice sounded over the intercom.

"Team, you have a mission. Report immediatly to the Command Bay."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--northern Georgia, USA--

    "Ok, so why exactly are we keeping an eye on the Joker when Batsy and
Rob here usualy handle his sorry-"

    "Because this is a covert mission! We're only there to watch and
hopefully get out undetected. Sheesh! We're a covert team, idiot."
Artemis said in annoyance. Yep. Her joy was gone. Now she was back to
Artemis the pain. Wally was surprised by being cut off, and couldn't
think of a comeback fast enough.

    "Well, someones a bit cranky." Robin snickered. KF was relieved that
Rob was the one about to be yelled at when they aproached their destination.
They had reached the gloomy barn where 'something' was going down. They had
climbed on the roof and had found a little hole in it to where they could
see and hear clearly. Bellow them was the Joker and Hook, one of the League
of Shadows members. Each of the villians had a sleek, black briefcase. The
team watched as they exchanged briefcases and opened them.

    "Well, all seems to be in order." The Joker was chuckling to himself. "So
this is the new 'tool' I've  been hearing so much of?" All he got in
response was a slight nod from Hook. Wally looked on, curiously. A new
weapon? From the Shadows? This wasn't good, and he should know, he was a
 scientist. The really strange part was the fact that they were doing business
with the Joker. And why so far from home? Something was up, he could feel
it. "Does it even work?" Just as the Joker finished his question, the team
heard a moan. Uh-oh. Megan gave a yelp as the rest of the team  fell through
the crumbling roof.

    "Why the heck was there ice on the roof in a south place like Georgia?!"
Robin was growling to  himself.

    "Why are you even talking? Fight!" Artemis barked as Joker took a swing
at her. Wally followed orders without a thought. He was beside Robin in a
second, fighting off Hook.  To his left, Megan had joined Superboy and
Kaldur in attacking the ninjas that had suddenly started apearing and to
his right, Artemis was stuck flipping and punching in an almost dance-like
fight with Joker. He watched as the young archer leaped over Joker's head,
grabbed his arm and flipped him roughly over her shoulder. Joker jumped up
and tripped Artemis as she was about to jump to the side. She got up and
planted one right in the middle of his chest, knocking the wind out of him.
She took the advantage and kicked him upside the face. Arty was about to do
it again, when Joker grabbed her foot halfway up. He took her and flung her
into the wall, but she was back up immediatly. Wow, Wally was stunned. She
was taking blow after blow but kept right on. Soon, she had blood dripping
into her eyes from her forehead, a bloody lip, and one of her arms had a
scratch down it. Wally shuddered.

    "Go help her, I've got Hook under control!" Robin said to Kid Flash.

    When KF turned to go help Artemis, he froze. Joker was holding a weird
dagger behind his back. Arty didn't notice. "ARTEMIS! HIS OTHER HAND!" It
took her a second to process what Wally had said, but her reaction was almost
too slow. West watched as Artemis jumped to the side, the blade missing her
chest but instead digging into the flesh of her left hand. He grimmaced as
blood from the wound started to drip to the floor. Wally hated blood. He ran
over and punched Joker in the face, taking the battle so Artemis could treat
her wound. After a little while of kicking and pounding, KF was tiring.
All of a sudden, a long, green blurr passed him, barely missing his right
shoulder. It crashed into the Joker, wrapping wires around his whole body
so he fell with a thump. Wally turned to see Artemis putting her bow back in
place with one hand, the other was at her side, wrapped in white gauze.
There was red starting to show on the palm again, and the speedster was
about to say something, but thought better of it. "Thanks."

    "Yep. Thanks, too."   

    Megan, Kaldur, and Superboy were finished with the ninjas and Robin
had Hook unconsious on the ground in front of him. "Robin to Batman.
We um, well, we had a little accident and, well, you'll see. Lets just
say you have a package on the way."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    "We said covert, not go in and beat the living-"
    
    "It was my fault!" Artemis blurted. Wally looked at her like she
was crazy. She didn't slip on the ice, Robin did... "I- um, slipped
on the ice on the roof and I fell, causing it to cave in. I'm sorry."
She looked away from Batman's glare.

    "Hmf, well, since you suceeded in capturing the group, your off
the case. Team dismissed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--The Next Day--

    "Ugh." Artemis walked right into Robin as he was scowling at
his wrist-communicator-thingie.

    "Um, you ok, Rob?"

    "Gr, no! Joker busted outa jail! Seriously, when will he get that
he's only gonna end up there again?!" Artemis just shook her head
and watched as he stormed off towards the training area. That kid was
so small, and had quite the humorus temper. She laughed at the thought
of him trying to stand up to some villian. When she entered the kitchen,
she wasn't surprised to see Wally sitting at the table with a sandwich
in front of him. He was reading a textbook, something about quantum mechanics.
He didn't seem to notice when she walked in because the moment she opened
the refrigerator door, he jumped like she had snuck up behind him and screamed.

    "Jeez, Wally! You look like you saw the Reaper!" Artemis laughed
at him.

    "Not. Funny. Artemis." He growled at her. His expression just made
her laugh harder.

    "Sorry, sorry. Just, you looked so scared!" She broke into more
giggles just as Robin entered the room and the fridge door slid shut.

    "Aw, geez. What did I miss?"

    "Hah, nothing..." Artemis was about to start laughing again when
Robin spoke up.

    "Hey, I forgot to ask you, why did you take the blame for me last
night?" She stopped giggling and stared at him. She was about to say
something when her phone started to ring.

    "Sorry, it's my friend. Hello? Hey Kayla, whats up?"She walked out
of the kitchen into the hallway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    "Um, did she even answer my question?"

   "You tell me." Wally was staring after her. Jeesh! how manny personality
changes could that girl go through? She must still be sore from that cut.
Wow. Did he just realize that? Man, his thoughts were getting way off focus.

    "Wall-man? Is it just me, or was her bandage all, well, red again?"
Wally looked at Robin. He was staring after her, too.

    "I didn't see anything." He said.

    "Huh. Well, I've got to go. Theres a Christmas party tonight that I
have to attend. Bye, see you later, KF!" And with that, Dick was gone.
Wally finished off his sandwich, read the rest of the chapter he was on,
and went to check on Artemis.

    "Who is it?" Wally was just about to knock when Arty's voice sounded
through the automatic, metal door.

    "Um, its me, Wally."

    "... Come in." The door slid open and he stepped into the dimly lit
room. Artemis was sitting on her bed, wrapping new gauze around her
hand. The old red one was piled up on her bedside table. "So what do
you want, Baywatch?"

    "Well, I came to check up on you. Rob noticed that your bandages
were getting- well, not good."

    "I'm fine, as you can see."

    "Why did you take the blame for Robin slipping on the ice, last
night?" She looked up at him then with a guilty look on her face.

    "Well, Batman was really mad, and you could see the guilty look on
Rob's face, so i decided to- well, be nice for once..." He nodded.

    "Hope your hand gets better." And with that he left the room. Before
he left, he noticed Artemis had looked like she was about to say
something, but changed her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--Christmas Day--

    "Morning, Megan. Wheres Conner?" Artemis was still in her sleepwear,
army-green sweats and a black tank-top with her hair in a loose low
ponytail.

    "He's coming! Come on! I want you to open your presents! Well,
actually, let's wait 'till after breakfast. Oh, come on, Artemis! Hurry
up!" The tired archer laughed softly to herself as Megan dragged her
into the kitchen. It smelled wonderfull. "You slept for forever! Its
ten already!" Huh, her friend was acting just like her mom used to on
christmas morning. Mom. Artemis' face almost slipped but she held her
joyful, tired one up just enough for it to fool Megan.

    "I'm coming, I'm coming! Why do I need to- Um, whoah." The island in
the kitchen was completly covered in trays holding pancakes, jam, rolls,
waffles, toast, eggs, cookies, and more. "Um, why do we need all this food?
Its just us three!" Thats when Robin entered the room.

    "Hey, Artemis. Merry Christmas." He said. "I thought I'd drop by to
say hello today, after all, you don't want to be stuck with just them, do
you?" He laughed at himself.

    "Thanks, Rob. Merry Christmas to you, too."

    "Morning, Sleeping Beauty. So you decided to get up from your coffin?"
Artemis turned to see the sarcastic redhead smirking at her from across
the room.

    "Haha, your so funny, Wally."

    "Come on, sit down everybody!" Megan ushered each of the team members

into their seats. Just then, Superboy entered the room.

    After they had finished eating, they all gathered in the den to open
each other's gifts. Artemis only sat and watched the rest of the team
shred the wrapping paper off the boxes. She laughed at Megan's ecstatic
expression when she opened the paper containing her dress. Superboy mumbled
something that sounded like 'Thanks' when he opened the shirt she gave him,
but she wasn't paying attention. She was watching Wally, and he was about
to open her present to him. She held her breath as he peeled back the paper
and opened the lid of the box. He looked surprised, but a good kind. "How much
were these?" He asked, looking up at her.

    "I left the receipt in there in case you wanted to exchange them for something else..." She shrugged.

    "No, I like them, its just- well, they look so-" He cut off as he found the receipt and checked. "Wow, thanks Arty- erm, Artemis." She smiled at him. Oh, she was good.

    "Hey, maybe we should call up Kaldur. You know, say hi!" Artemis watched as Robin started to disagree with Megan, saying that he was probably busy and most likely wouldn't have time to chat.

    "Oh, Artemis, why aren't you opening your gifts?" Megan suddenly spoke to her.

    "What? Oh, I just wanted to watch the rest of you open yours first." She said as Megan grabbed a handful of wrapped boxes and placed them on the archer's lap expectantly. She hesitantly picked up the first. It had crisp, smooth red and green striped paper and was long and thin. From Dick. Huh. She opened it to find a box containing a dark green laptop. "Wow, thanks Rob!" That kid and his money. The next was from SB and Megan and was wraped in Superman paper. She giggled and peeled away the paper to find a silver-blue dress. She looked up surprised and Superboy jabbed a thumb towards the martian.

    "Her idea."Artemis burst out laughing.

    "Hahaha, thanks Megan. Its beautiful! I love it!" Artemis picked up the last present. It had light green paper and a curly dark green bow on it's top. It was from Wally. Wait- Wally? She opened it and inside was a small leather box. In the box was a collection of different sized paint brushes and canvas tools. Artemis looked up puzzled and met Wally's eyes. Oh no. He knew. What did he think now?! "Wally, these must have cost a fortune. Thanks, alot." She meant it though. It almost felt good to know that it wasn't such a secret anymore.

    "No problem. It was the least I could do!" The speedster smirked at her.

--Later That Night--

    "Night guys!" Artemis and Megan said as they watched Dick and Wally exit through the zeta-tubes. "Goodnight Megan. See you tommorow!" Artemis said as she walked towards her bedroom to change her bandages. After that, she was going to have to try out those new brushes. On her way, she stopped by the kitchen to grab a leftover gingersnap, and sat at the table to nibble on it. Finaly, she headed off down the hall and just as she turned into the den hallway, she bumped into Wally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    "What are you still doing here?" Artemis asked him.

    "I forgot my jacket. Sorry." He was about to pass her when she stopped him.

    "How long have you known?" She asked softly. He looked at her. Was that worry? Wow, did she think that just because she painted creepy stuff he wouldn't like her or something? Jeesh, that girl was paranoid!

    "Well only a little while." She nodded and began to walk away. This time, he was the one to stop her. " What makes you paint all those horrible pictures?" He hoped he hadn't offended her.

    "Nothing. They're... nightmares. Ones I've had since I was a little girl... I've always painted my dreams and nightmares..." She bit her lip and looked up. As soon as she did though, she blushed a deep scarlet and mumbled something that sounded somewhat like,'Just perfect.' Wally looked up to see what she was staring at. Aw, crap. They were standing right under the bunch of mistltoe Megan had hung up in the doorway. When he looked back down, Artemis was still blushing. He was about to turn away and pretend like nothing had happened when she stood up on her tiptoes and quickly pecked him on the lips. When Wally finaly regained his focus, Artemis was halfway down the hall. Man, that was awkward.

--Three Days Later--

    "Team, report to the command bay. This is urgent." Artemis quickened her pace to a jog as she went to join the team and Batman. When she arrived, Bats had already started the debriefing. "He was spotted here, near an abandoned ranch out in the country. Set the coordinates and get going. The reason myself and Robin aren't on the job is because you made this mess," He glanced at Artemis,"and your going to have to fix it."

    "Fill me in?" She whispered to Robin as they left to board the bioship.

    "Joker's out on the rant again. He's meeting with the League of Shadows and just recently was spotted by the scanner twice in the same place two days in a row. We're on our way there to check it out. You know, see if he's still hanging around there and if he is, kick his sorry-" He was cut off as his wristwatch started beeping. "Coordinates recieved. Lets go."

    When they got to the ranch, they landed a ways away for the ship's safety. After a while of trudging along in the 5-inch deep snow, they got to the back entrance and linked up. 'Everyone online?' Miss M asked.

    'Yep'

    'Sure thing, beautiful.'

    'Of course.'

    'Lets go kick some crazy clown butt!'

    'Lets just get this overwith, my hand is sore.'

    As they split into teams of three, Kaldur, Megan, and Wally went around to the front to keep watch. Artemis, Robin, and Superboy got to the roof and began to search for a way in. When they finaly found a decent spot and stopped on it, they were blown ito the air by a ray blast that came from inside the little run-down shack. When they fell back down, they landed in the middle of the dark thing. Suddenly, Joker leapt out and began his attack on the boy wonder. Chesire jumped at Artemis and once again, Connor was left to fight the ninjas. Artemis and Chesire were a blur of fists and feet. They would swing and kick and swing again, but to no avail. "Trade dance partners?" Joker asked her.

    "My pleasure." Before she knew what was happening, Joker had jumped in front of her, taking Chesire's place. In her shock, the Joker grabbed her arm,twisted it behind her back, and jabbed the needle of a syringe into it. Artemis jerked away, knocking the needle out, but not before he had injected every drop of the liquid that was in it into her arm.

    "What... was that?" She asked, her vision blurry.

    "You'll see soon enough!" The Joker started to laugh hysterically. The archer took a swing and hit him hard in the jaw, but he grabbed her fist and flung her through the wall into the freezing cold. She tried unsuccessfully to get herself up and on her feet, and colapsed back onto the ground. Thats when things went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Megan's mental scream broke Wally's concentration and one of Joker's goons got a punch in. 'Dang Megan! Whats wrong?'

    'Artemis! Somethings wrong! Very, very, wrong! She was cut out of the link! It was like an explosion! Guys, Artemis is in pain!' Megan used her telepathy to throw back all of the clown goons.

    'Where is she?' Robin's thoughts echoed.

    'Wait, she's not with you?'

    'I'll find her. I'm going to run around the place a few times to see if I can spot her!' Wally dashed off. As soon as he saw the spec of green by the broken down wall, he knew it was her. 'Found her! She isn't moving, though.' He rushed over to her and put her head in his lap.

    'Wait, Joker injected some weird stuff into her when they were battling! Let me wrap up Chesire, and I'll be over to run a scan!' Robin interjected. Wally was trying to get Artemis to wake up when he noticed something. It was like she was being yelled at, she kept flinching back. Just then, Rob showed up. "This does not look good. Not good at all. Wait, why is she-"

    "I have no idea, its like she's mentaly being yelled at or something. Hurry up and run the scan." As Robin did so, his face went from concerned to horrified.

    "Oh, God help us." He mumbled.

    "What, what is it?" Wally was getting impatient. Wait, impatient?

   "The stuff he put in her wasn't poison or paralyzer or any of that," Wally relaxed a little. "it's made to activate some stuff he got into her before. My question is how the heck did he get the stuff in her first?"

    "Wait, do you think he could have put a stronger dose in a thin layer over a blade? Cause when Artemis was fighting the Joker, he got that deep cut in her hand with a really weird looking knife." Wally asked him.

    "I don't know for sure, but that's our best guess. Okay, we have to act now. Megan, try to get inside her head." KF turned and noticed that the martian had just joined them.

    "I can't, she's in some kind of coma. Everytime I almost reach her, I see shadows and a tall figure above me. It's only a flash, though."

    "Okay, I've got it. I researched the components that they used, and I have some info on how to help her. The stuff is made specificly for one person in general, its so that the body doesn't recognize it as bad. It attaches to the white blood cells, numbing them. Then spreads throughout the body, reaching the nerves and brain. When the other formula is injected, it mutates the first and cause them to start attacking the brain, putting the infected into a coma-like state. Then, they somehow reach the person's memories and start to replay them, like a movie. Only, it just plays the bad parts, the painful ones. Thats when the physical pain kicks in."

    "Physical?!" Megan asked.

    "Yes. She starts to experience physical pain and if the memory is clear enough, she could even get a real wound. This isn't some new poison, though. So they have a cure." Megan and Wally's shoulders unstiffened as they listened. "Since it's made for one person, using someone else's blood and Immune system, we'll be able to fight it off. But the question is, who's it gonna be?"

    "Well, I can't do it, I'm a martian, not human. Superboy can't, he's a- well, clone. Kaldur can't, he atlantian." Megan stated.

    "And I can't do it, I'll have to perform most of the transfusion. So that leaves-" Robin was cut off as Artemis gave a cry and jerked away from Wally. "Oh God, we have to hurry." KF nodded and held out his arm. Robin took hold of it and grabbed a syringe from his belt.

    "My speed healing will help along the proccess, too." The speedster winced as the needle was jabbed into his arm and filled up with red liquid. When Rob pulled it out, he handed him a small wad of cotton to press to the spot. Artemis gasped as his blood was injected into her just above her elbow. No reaction other than that. "She's going to need more than that." As he spoke, the archer started to writhe and twist in the snow. Blood started to pool underneath her.

    "Quick, flip her over!" When They finally got her on her stomach, they were horrified by the sight before them. Thick slashes were begining to appear all over her back and shoulders, more and more blood leaving her body.

    "She needs it faster than the needle can give! We need to get blood to the spot where she was infected! Undo her bandage and slit her palm!" Robin gave him a questioning look, but followed orders. Kaldur had arrived, leaving SB to keep watch just a ways away. When they cut her palm, they all gasped. She was bleeding black blood. They looked cautiously to her back and it had begun to turn black, too. "Cut my palm now, too Rob." He did as he was told. Wally didn't feel a thing when his hand started to bleed. He grabbed Artemis' bleeding hand and held on tight. To pump his blood faster, he started to vibrate his molecules. He didn't care that there was a lake of red at his knees. He didn't care that that same red was running down his arm, staining his suit. He just didn't care anymore. The only thing he cared about just then was saving a teamate. His teamate. "What the-" He barely got that out of his mouth before everything went black.

    "Wally, whats wrong?" Robin's voice broke though the silence.

    "I-I think I'm inside her memories!"

    "That would explain why I can't link to you anymore!" Megan said from space. "What do you see?"

    "Its like I'm watching from somewhere else, like a book in third person. It's only black now, but- wait! I see something! Its- Oh no, her dad, he's- he's whipping her!" Before him, he could see a little Artemis, the one from the paintings, being whipped by Sportsmaster, her dad. How did he not notice it earlier?

    "How do you know its her father?" Crap.

    "Its like I can just tell!" The Image started to fade and a new one showed up. Her father was yelling at her, telling her an assasin shouldn't let her focuss slip. What? Assasin? This immage faded, too. The next was like the painting from her room, she was standing in the middle of the same room from it, and corpses were piled up around her. Sportsmaster was congradulating his daughter when one of the though dead ninjas got back up. Right then, Sportsmaster changed from happy daddy to angry mentor. He scorned her for being so careless and slapped her so hard she fell back and he stormed away. The fading this time didn't go to a new picture untill he felt a real hand sqeazing his harder to Artemis'. The image was of her climbing down from an apartment building. Her building. She climbed in the window and froze as she did. It was dark. Her mother never left the lights off when she knew Artemis was out late fighting crime. Just then, her father stepped out of the shadows. The rest was hazy, but Wally somehow knew they were in battle. When they broke appart, Arty got her bow and loaded an arrow. The same second she let fly, her dad jumped out of the way, to reveal her mother wheeling out of the door beyond. "Artemis whats all this-" She never got to finish her sentence, not with the green arrow sticking out of the middle of her throat. Artemiss screamed and the whole thing disapeared.

    Wally gasped and focused his eyes back to reality. He looked down to see Artemis' head was back in his lap, and she was sobbing. He let go of her hand and let Robin wrap it and his in gauze, still staring at her. He carried her back to the bioship and wouldn't let her go until they reached HQ, when Green Arrow took her from his arms. In his daze, he followed them to the infermary and sat by the bed where she was layed. He couldn't tell how long it had been, hours or days, when she finally opened her eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Artemis opened her eyes to see Wally sitting next to her. When she tried to sit up, a moan escaped her mouth as pain shot through her back and she was lowered back down by two hands that gently gripped her shoulders. "Take it easy, Artemis." His voice was raspy, like he had been  awake for days. "You'll open up your cuts again." She looked at him curiously, and then it all flooded back to her. Joker, the needle, the memories... She had sensed Wally there, almost like he had been watching the whole time.

    "Whats going on?" She asked him.

    "You got poisoned by the Joker, and we had to help you..." He explained everything to her. "I was there, you know. Watching your- memories..." Oh God no... "I don't know how the heck you could keep all that balled up inside you and not just burst out crying. Why didn't you tell us?" Artemis looked at him for a second and mumbled under her breath, "Assasins aren't supposed to cry..." Wally must have heard her, but ignored it. "I didn't tell the team, I wanted to make sure it was okay with you first." He looked at her expectantly. With a sigh, she nodded.

    "Thank you... For everything. It almost feels good to have someone know... Well, know and not hate me..." He nodded, a smile teasing his lips.

    "Hey, I think thats only the second time you've ever said thank you to my face and didn't mean it sarcasticly." Before she could reply, he was gone and back again. "The rest of the team is on their way." He said. To his surprise, she smiled at him. She grabbed his hand and squeazed it tightly.

    "Thank you."

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--Four Days Later--

    Wally was happy. Artemis was back on her feet and thanks to the little blood transfusion, her wounds were totally healed. "Hey, Baywatch." She was helping Megan take down the christmas decorations and clean up the place. Megan walked in behind the blond archer carrying a box full of tree decorations.

    "Hi, Wally!"

    "Aw, it's a darn shame that the mistltoe never got put to use!" Artemis turned and glared at him, making him smile. "Well, I didn't see anyone underneath it." He waggled his eyebrows as Connor entered the kitchen. Megan blushed so red, even Arty began to laugh. Supey raised an eyebrow at them, but continued on his way.

    "I need to go pick up some groceries. I'll be back soon!" Artemis said, heading towards the transporters. Wally got up and jogged after her.

    "Mind if I tag along?" She turned toward him, surprised.

    "Um, sure. Why not?" She turned back around, continuing on her way. She hadn't really been alone since she told the team about her 'family problems.' Not that they wanted to keep an eye on her, like she kept thinking, but because they felt bad and didn't want her to have to be alone ever again. Yes, they were being just a little overly caring, but at least they did care. When they were outside, Wally picked Artemis up and ran with her bridal style through the swirling white world around them. He stopped in an alleyway near the store. When he set her down, she punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Maybe a little warning nextime, huh, Baywatch?" He just laughed at her. She looked beautiful. There were small snow crystals in her hair along with a few specks of glitter from the decorations. He picked one out and smiled at her, wondering if he would ever want to argue with her again. He was staring into her eyes when she wrapped her arms around his neck and he bent down, their lips meeting. Wally's hands found their way to her face, pulling her closer. When they broke apart, she looked away, blushing, but he grabbed her chin and made her look at him.

    "I love you."  As they stepped out of the alley and began to walk, Artemis stared at a little girl walking hand in hand with her parents like she knew them. He was watching too when she spoke.

    "You know, my mom always used to say, 'It matters not that you are remembered, but that the life you lived was worth dying for.'" Wally smiled as they walked hand in hand down Happy Harbour, their lips meeting again every once in a while.