Chapter 54

  Darkness swirled in Artemis vision as she came to, tiny blue and yellow flashing lights coming into focus, the main lights in the room were off but a there was a flickering light casting a blue glow across the room, Artemis groaned in pain, the noises of the room were overwhelming her, there was a shrill, steady beep, a mechanical whir, she could make out the sound of a cartoon explosion from a tv speaker, followed by a goofy audio cue and a laugh track, she painfully pushed herself into a semi reclined position against the pillows,

  “You should stay laying down, you took a pretty bad beating” Wally had been sitting in an armchair a few feet away watching Tv but was now at her side,

  “What time is it?” Artemis asked,

  “2AM, though you’ve been out for over a day” Wally answered,

  “What happened?” Artemis asked, her head was throbbing,

  “We were hoping you could fill us in, we only know up until your mom you couldn't see, who saved you” Artemis pictured her sister the last time she had seen her, years earlier, she hadn’t been wearing the mask yet, neither of them had,

  “I couldn’t tell” she lied, but she could tell Wally knew,

  “I think it was Jade” He said, Artemis paused,

  “Wally, she saved my life, I won’t rat her out, not this time” she said, her throat stung,

  “Last time you saw her she tried to kill you with a power tool, what changed since then?” Wally asked,

  “I don’t know” Artemis answered, truthfully,

  “Why do you think they were here together?” Artemis was wondering the same thing, she only had 1 realistic conclusion to the question but she was trying to ignore that option,

  “No proof they were here together, it could be a coincidence” She responded,

  “You think that’s the most likely answer? not that they’re both shadows and so they’re more than likely working a job together?” Artemis didn’t answer, and Wally eventually just let it go.

  “They said they wanted to keep you here even after you woke up for a couple days to keep an eye on you” He said, Artemis looked at the tubes running to her arm,

  “That’s fine as long as 1 of these has painkillers” She said, Wally smiled,

  “I would guess so, from what I’ve heard you’ll probably need them” He said,

  “What’s the rundown this time?” Artemis asked, leaning back against the pillow,

  “Let’s see, concussion, general bruising and swelling, you chipped another tooth,” Artemis ran her tongue along her teeth and found the newly damaged tooth near the back on the right side of her mouth, it now had a sharp edge, Wally continued, “Your left cheek will be pretty sore from where they pulled the tooth shards out, your shoulders were both injured, your right 1 worse, several ribs were bruised, swelled, or cracked, your pelvis was bruised pretty bad, your right arm was dislocated, and you lost a good amount of blood, that’s the power point version.”

  Artemis felt a rush of relief as a dose of strong pain medication was administered to her body, her breathing sped up for a moment before steadying, her eyes closing as she began drifting off, then her eyes snapped open, and she sat up, wincing in pain at the speed in which she did so,

  “Where are my clothes?” She asked, Wally pointed to a pajama set folded on a side table,

  “Over there” Artemis was becoming visibly nervous despite her efforts not to,

  “What happened to the ones I was wearing?” She asked, she bit her lip before quickly stopping due to pain,

  “They had to toss em, they were soaked were soaked through with blood, Barbara didn’t seem to worried about em” Artemis knuckles were turning white as she gripped the sheet,

  “Who emptied my pockets?” She asked, Wally hesitated, clearly conflicted, finally he shoved his hand into his pocket and produced a small packet of white powder,

  “Looking for this?” He asked, giving the small bag an aggressive shake, Artemis felt her throat tighten, Wally’s eyes narrowed,

  “What? You were baking cookies? Do you think I’m stupid?” He asked, Artemis shook her head silently, she felt like his eyes were burning through her even as she avoided them, “What is it?” He asked,

  “Heroin” Artemis said quietly, as though if she said it quiet enough he might forget about it, “Who have you told?” She asked, Wally looked away, as if feeling guilty,

  “Nobody, yet” He answered, Artemis let out a sigh of relief,

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Good, don’t tell them, don’t ruin this for me” She said, Wally’s eyes snapped to her,

  “I didn’t do this to you, you did this, I think I want this? I won’t find out 1 day that something happened to you because I chose not to do something now” He said,

  “It’s not like that, I don’t want this, but it helps with my insomnia, that’s it, okay?” Artemis argued,

  “Pretty sure there are legal, and safer ways to deal with that” Wally’s voice was rising,

  “I’ve tried other ways, they don’t work, so it’s this, or I go off the couple hours of sleep I can get when I crash after 2 days straight, or random 30 minute naps I can pick up if I’m lucky” Wally was about to say something but Artemis continued,”I know it’s not ideal, but you know I’m not stupid, I’m not shooting up, I’m snorting it, which is safer, and I only take as much as I need to sleep, okay,”

  “No, it’s not okay, you don’t have to be stupid for this stuff to kill you, how do you even know how to get it?” Artemis laughed,

  “Are you serious? I’ve been taught how to find people who deal it, and the people who supply those people for that matter” Wally sighed, “Wally, don’t tell anyone, please, I need to know I can trust you on this 1” Wally stood silent for a minute, staring at the small bag,

  “I’m begging you to trust me” Wally nodded, regretfully,

  “Fine” Was all he all he could say,

  “Thank you, I promise I won’t let it get too far” Wally avoided looking at her, “Will you get rid of that for me so no one else finds it?” Wally sighed,

  “Yeah” He nodded,

  “Thank you, can you help me with 1 other thing?” Artemis asked,

  “With what?”Wally asked, reluctantly,

  “I’m about to piss myself, and I don’t think I can walk to the bathroom myself, so unless you want to be cleaning a soaked bed I’m gonna need you to help” Wally’s shoulders relaxed, his lips formed a thin smile,

  “Yeah, I can help with that” He stepped over and pressed a couple buttons on 1 of the machines beside the bed, he then carefully removed the heart rate monitor devices from her, her leaned down and she slid her left arm, around his neck, he slid his left arm under her knees and used his right arm to guide the i.v pole connected to her, she leaned her face into his neck,

  “You know, we could try again” She suggested, softly, Wally smiled sadly, and she knew the answer,

  “You know why we can’t” He responded, and she nodded into his neck.

  It was 10:30AM when Kara woke up, she found that she was alone in bed and decided to go looking for the rest of the team, she found Rachel, Garfield and Barbara in the main living space on the floor their rooms were on, Rachel had fallen asleep resting against a couch arm rest, Garfield was wearing gray sweatpants and a green shirt with a camo patterned dinosaur, Barbara was wearing a Gotham Tech Camp tee with gray shorts, they were sitting on another couch watching reruns of an old cartoon, Barbara’s feet propped up on a coffee table next to an empty coffee mug and 2 partially empty glasses of orange juice.

  She noticed Kara enter,

  “Morning, wanna watch?” She asked,

  “Okay” Kara said, filling a glass with orange juice before sitting on the couch beside Rachel, who stirred as she felt the weight on the next cushion, though she managed to stay asleep, the team had spent the previous day helping clean up the city, and had stayed out late into the night.

  About 10 minutes later Dick entered the room and said,

  “Turn to the news” Barbara and Garfield turned to look at him,

  “Now?” They asked, disappointed, until they saw his serious expression,

  “Right” Barbara grabbed the remote and hit a few buttons, the screen switched to a live video from outside the front of the main LexCorp building, about half a minute later a disembodied voice began speaking,

  “For those viewers just tuning in, LexCorp has called a press conference to announce the replacement CEO after the sudden death of founder and former CEO Alexander Luthor, who tragically passed 2 days ago during the attempted alien invasion of Metropolis, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that this announcement is coming far sooner than any of us anticipated, oh, it looks like someone is approaching the podium now.”

  On the screen a young, bald man in a black suit stepped up to the microphone, there was a wave of audible gasps and murmurs from the crowd, reporters began talking over each other, but the man held up a hand and everyone fell instantly silent, his face changed, a golden, award winning smile came across his face,

  “Hello, I want to thank you all for coming, I’m sure this is a tad off putting for all of you, but I’ll try my best to explain the situation, and then I’ll take a few questions afterwards, first things first, I don’t really have a name, but you can call Luthor, Lex Luthor was my father, or more accurately, I am his clone, Lex had been training me to take his place in the event of his death, though I did expect we would have more time than we did, I am saddened by his passing, even so I want to honor his wishes, so I will assume my position as CEO of LexCorp, I have been assured that all laws are being followed, I am a legal citizen of the United States, and am legally permitted to hold the position of CEO” Luthor looked to a woman on the stage behind him, she gave him a reassuring smile and nodded, he turned back to the crowd, “Okay, I’ll take a few questions now.”

  The Titans sat around the tv stunned, Rachel had woken up and was watching with confusion, Barbara had her hand clamped over her mouth, Garfield’s jaw hung open, Kara’s fingers dug into the sofa, Dick had met Superman the most, and he recognized the broad chin, square nose, the blue eyes and thick black eyebrows, the man on screen looked like a young fusion of the man of steel and the brilliant man he had so often found himself opposite to.

  Slade Wilson was on his knees, his arms chained to the stone wall behind him, his white hair and beard had grown long and were caked in dried blood, he had been in the large prison, in the middle of the jungle for months, the warden had just finished interrogating him again, the door screeched open, the light outside the room was cast onto him, he smiled, until he looked up and saw who had entered, the door swung shut behind a man wearing a grey suit,

  “William, what are you doing here?” Slade hissed, keeping his voice low,”You’re gonna blow my cover” William glanced back at the metal door before walking calmly across the cell to Slade,

  “You’re playing with your food at this point, you have far more information than the client asked for, so it’s time to wrap this up, we have another client, and they’re offering more than top dollar” William said, barely lowering his voice,

  “You could have handled it” Slade said,

  “They asked to deal with you personally, and I thought it would peak your interest as it concerns the Bats apprentices” Slade nodded,

  “Do you have the boat prepared for the escape? I have a few things left to deal with here, I’ll meet you back at Valhalla” He said,

  “No, I’ve got the plane ready at an airstrip a mile east, we’ll meet there, I already set up a meeting for tonight, you can get cleaned up on the plane, your suits already prepared for the appearance” Slade cracked the tension from his neck,

  “Then get out of here so I can get to work.”