Trust

It always feels like I should be screaming on the outside too, but I don't, it would be weak or as my father would say, 'do not plead, beg or scream for your life and it's horrors, you are weak and useless if done so, your life would have been wasted and your enemies would crush you like a bug, worse than I do to train you', and even though I hate my father, I never cried nor screamed or begged for my life, I would take it as it was, and get out of there.

When someone asks why I am, like I am, I would tell them its none of their business, and they would often leave. But Wally and Megan would not quit. Wally was doing it to obviously annoy me, whilst Megan was just generally interested.

"Come on Arty, tell us, why is the rock so much of a rock?!" in response I just got up and sat down on the couch, to my unluckiness Wally and Megan followed, "You are quite incredible whilst training against metas, could you explain why?" Megan's innocent voice found it's way to my ears, I continued to ignore them, Wally huffed as they both walked away leaving me in peace, or so I thought.

"Megalicious?"

"Yes Wally?"

"do you think you could skim through Artemis's mind?" Megan looked confused

"I thought that was forbidden?"

"Well, there are exceptions.. So you think you can do it?" Megan contemplated Wally's request, on one hand she thought Artemis may dislike them rummaging around her mind, but on the other hand she was very interested in Artemis's past and her abilities.

"Alright, I will link us up so you can see too" Wally nodded, and Megan dove into Artemis's mind.

The first memory that appeared was Artemis and a black haired who looked quite similar to Artemis, they supposed it was her sister. They were fighting in hand to hand combat, it seemed the older girl was getting in more hits than Artemis, but other than that she was fairing well. It flicked to the next memory, Artemis was still fighting with the same girl, but this time with silver blades and daggers. Everything was going smoothly, they were each deflecting each others hits, that was until the older cut Artemis with the blade, her eyes started growing foggy as tears forced their way up, a small whimper snuck out of her lips. The older girl immediately noticed and dropped her blades to support Artemis, "Artemis" she was stopped by a large hand and a strong voice took control of the coming events, "no! She needs to learn to deal with pain, again!" Artemis's sister obviously didn't take that statement well, as her brows furrowed and she stood taller, "she's only five!". Artemis was now glancing between the man, who was most likely her father, and her sister, "jade, i-it's fine" she quietly whispered to the older girl who was apparently Jade.

Then that memory stopped and carried onto another one, Jade was sitting on a window sill with a cap and her head and a duffle bag over shoulders. "Jade, please, please don't leave me" Jade looked sincere but made not sign of moving,

"sorry baby sister, in this family it's every girl for herself" and with that she jumped off into the night. Artemis stayed in that spot for a while until she went back to her bed and held herself together. "he's gonna kill me" was the last thing she said before they travelled to another memory.

Artemis was standing in front of her father, her eyes barely open, her voice hoarse and faint, "Dad, please stop" he frowned at her.

"do not plead, beg or scream for your life and it's horrors! You are weak and useless if done so, your life would have been wasted and your enemies would crush you like a bug, worse than I do to train you!" she glanced back up to him and nodded, he continued punching her, she tried to get hit on him but only rarely could.

Then there were moments of succeeding, but it never being good enough for her father, like the time she finally beat him in hand to hand combat, or when she perfected throwing knives, he would merely tell her to do better. It went like this for a while every new scene the bigger she got or the more she fought back.

One memory stayed for a longer period of time than the rest, it seemed that her mother had finally arrived in her memories, they were training again, but Artemis's mother did not seem agree with his methods,

"Lawrence! You agreed you would stop this!" Lawrence turned to face the elderly woman,

"I never said such, Now leave PAulA!"

"No! It is time you leave!" Lawrence smirked as he went for a punch, Paula caught it and deflected, they started fighting and Artemis's eyes were darting every where, until they stopped on the gun Lawrence was pulling out, she ran forward yelling,

"Mum! Mov-" but it was to late the bullet had been fired, both women gasped as Paula fell to the ground, bleeding out.

Artemis scowled at her father and ran towards him, bringing out daggers, he noticed and they both fought, trying to get an advantage over the other. Artemis saw an opening were his legs were useless and she dived the dagger into his knee cap, he let out a roar. He pushed her and she fell, Lawrence quickly placed his thick, unharmed boot on her chest,

"that was a big mistake baby girl!" and he pushed his boot into her ribs, making her scream until several cracks could be heard. With that he smirked and menacingly spoke one last good-bye to her, "See you later baby girl", he was gone once she blinked again.

Artemis tried to get up but only let out a cry of pain, reaching for her chest, "mum?!" a grumble could be heard from the older women's side of the room.

Artemis tried to get up several more times before she reached her goal, the telephone, she dialled 911 and a few minutes later they were both in an ambulance.

Both Artemis and her mum had to be sent into surgery and it was several hours before either of them came out.

They were positioned across from each and Artemis's mother asked how she was feeling,

"sore, extremely sore, and you?" her voice was filled with concern, she saw the amount of blood that pooled around her mother, it was dangerous to say the least.

"well, overall I'm fine, but.."

"but what?!"

"I can't ever walk again honey" Paula tried to smile but it didn't help much, and then the memories were over.

A scream could be heard from the lounge room, everyone in the cave snapped out of their daze and ran to it, Connor was already there looking sympathetically at Artemis, she was hugging herself breathing heavily, she turned to Wally and Megan,

"why did you do that?!" her voice was mostly air, but they could understand her,

"Artemis" it was Megan her face covered in tears, she sympathetic but Artemis didn't need sympathy,

"why would he do it?" it was Wally this time, he looked angry and sad at the same time,

"what do mean why would he do it! He's him!"

Authors Note:

Just a little something I did a while ago…

I feel like this is true (not really), but also really depressing:( so yeah ):