LOOTING DC #22. No Way Back
(Artemis's POV)
It felt like a heavy shroud had fallen over her - thick, suffocating. Her consciousness drifted in a void, shadows of painful memories flickering through the dark.
It couldn't have ended like this. Not after everything she'd fought for. Everything she tried to rebuild. The mistakes she swore she'd make right...
All of it swept away in a cold, unstoppable tide.
She was adrift - gutted. The Cheshire mask hovered in her mind, a phantom of judgment. Her sister's crimes paled next to her own. The guilt clenched her like iron chains, dragging her deeper into herself.
She had failed her. Jade (Cheshire) didn't deserve this. None of it.
It was her fault. All of it.
And in the silence of that internal abyss, Artemis curled into herself and wept.
🕸️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕸️
The night was ominously cloudy, but the quiet sang along to the rhythm of the crickets. Cold wind tugged at Jake's torn suit as he launched another webline, carrying them from a fallen log by the river to the edge of Arkham Woods, where the first Gotham City buildings broke through the trees.
He couldn't believe he was feeling this way, but he was glad to be back. Somehow, this trip had been worse than Arkham itself.
His instincts had led him to follow the river downstream, guessing - correctly - that it fed into the Gotham bridge. Good call. Bad everything else.
He landed softly, leaves crunching beneath his shoes as he gently set Artemis down. Pain flared in his shoulder, where the arrow was still planted deep in his back. He could feel it grinding against bone and muscle - and now that the shaft had snapped off during the chaos in the cave, he knew getting it out would be a surgical nightmare.
Artemis hadn't said a word. She looked… gone. Vacant. Hollow in a way Jake couldn't read. She hadn't even reacted to the offhanded, awkward joke he made earlier - and now he half-regretted bringing her at all.
But what else could he have done?
One - Artemis wasn't a killer. That mattered. And two - Cheshire had just tried to kill her own sister. Jake didn't know the full story, but whatever it was, it was clearly enough to shake her.
Still, he didn't press. She'd speak when she was ready.
He turned his back and began pacing, fingers awkwardly reaching behind him to try and pry out the arrow. Every touch sent hot pain radiating up his spine.
His mind, meanwhile, spun in a different direction. The Web. That vision. That girl.
It had to be the Web of Life. Right? He wasn't sure, but nothing else made sense. And yeah, this was the DC Universe, not Marvel - but maybe his presence here had anchored it.
What did that mean for him?
Was that why his powers had shut off temporarily? Had something changed?
Had he evolved? An upgrade - like getting Venom - would be nice. It's a fate entangled in the web, yeah?
And that girl in the Web - he could swear ( even bet his left pinkie toe on this) she looked like Raven. That is, if he ignored the fact that the skull-shaped bird was indeed not a crow, but a raven. Crows resemble Ravens right? Or is it Ravens that look like crows? What's the difference?
Whatever.
Still, that moment felt... important. Like something was about to unfold. Something bigger than even his enhanced senses could comprehend.
Then his spider-sense buzzed.
Jake spun, hand up instinctively - just in time to catch an arrow between two fingers.
Artemis stood at the edge of the clearing, bow drawn. Three more arrows nocked, aimed directly at his heart.
Her eyes were fire and grief.
Jake blinked, bitterness twisting in his gut.
"…Wasn't one arrow in my back enough for you?"
She didn't flinch.
"You caused this!" she snapped. "You are why this happened."
Her voice cracked, raw. The bow in her grip didn't waver.
Jake lowered the arrow in his hand, trying - trying - to stay grounded.
"Okay," he said, careful. "Let's put the murder-stick down. You're upset, I get that-"
"I should kill you right now," she spat. "Maybe it's not too late. Maybe... Maybe I can still fix this."
Her voice trembled on that last word.
Jake's expression darkened.
He didn't like this position. It was frustrating. They had just gotten out of the woods - literally and figuratively - and now here they were again. He hated it.
Still, he bit back his anger as hard as he could.
"I'm not saying it again," he said, anger simmering low and tight. "Put the bow down, Artemis-"
She let go.
Spider-sense blared. Reflexes surged.
But Jake didn't move.
He exhaled and let one of the arrows strike dead center - sinking deep into his chest. It landed nearly symmetrical to the one in his back. For a moment, he felt both arrows grind against each other - plucking like tuning forks inside him.
Clean shot. Just missed his heart.
If he had one, at this point.
He looked down at the arrow, blood seeping through the tear in his suit. Great. His suit was nothing more than tatters now.
His jaw clenched. Something inside him shifted.
The ground cracked beneath his feet.
Web-lines lashed out, snapping across the woods like lightning - buzzing. His shadow warped, stretching unnaturally behind him.
Then - his voice dropped, reverberating with dark finality:
"I. SAID. PUT. THE BOW. DOWN."
It wasn't sound. It was law. A commandment.
A burst of web shattered the bow in Artemis' hands. Splinters flew into the leaves. Another thread ripped the quiver off her back, arrows scattering into the night.
Latching to a nearby branch, he slingshotted down - hard - and landed in front of her with enough force to crater the dirt. The air trembled around him. The Web of Life itself felt like it had flexed.
Artemis froze.
For a moment, all she could feel was the cold detachment radiating off his form. Menacing. Silent. Like a bad omen with the promise of death.
And yet... it didn't scare her.
The darkness inside her was worse. The void gnawing at her thoughts. The weight of her mistakes crushed her in ways no outside force could. She felt unanchored - like she'd already fallen too far to be afraid of anything anymore.
She turned - and started walking away.
That - that calm, almost casual response - caught Jake off guard. His frustration flared, and for a moment, something dark and unhinged stirred in the back of his mind.
But his conscience stopped him. This wasn't about him. This was about Cheshire... and whatever tangled connection Artemis had with her.
And for some reason, Artemis was devastated. Shattered in a way Jake couldn't fully grasp.
His canon knowledge felt the most useless here. The little he could gather was that something deep must've happened in Artemis' life for her to be shattered this way. A shared past with Cheshire that cut deeper than the canon version.
"Stop," he called after her.
She didn't.
But she did speak. Her voice was quiet and measured. "You're out of the woods now. If I were you, I'd leave Gotham."
Jake narrowed his eyes. "Where are you going?"
She didn't stop walking. "To do what I should've done a long time ago," she said, more to herself than to him. Her voice grew stronger with each word. "I'm going to get her back."
Jake blinked.
Then clenched his jaw.
Without warning, he gripped the arrow still embedded in his chest and shoved it deeper - grimacing as it tore through flesh and forced its way out his back. The shaft broke through with a sickening pop, trailing a smear of thick, red blood before it dropped to the dirt.
He pulled out the second arrow with a grunt, the pain searing hot and white. It burned. It tore. But he didn't care.
"Wait," he growled through gritted teeth. "I'm coming with you."
She stopped - but didn't turn.
"Why?" she snapped. "This isn't your business."
Jake fell silent.
He looked up at the sky, like he was searching for answers in the stars.
His suit was ruined. So much for raiding the BatCave.
He couldn't find a base. Didn't have time to build himself up the way he wanted. Couldn't even steer clear of Artemis. And even if they were seemingly entangled, this was not how he wanted an interaction with her to go.
He sighed, swallowing as much frustration as he could. This was a completely chaotic canvas. This was absolutely not how it was supposed to go down.
Why was he even here? What brought him to this messed-up world? Did he die in his past life? He couldn't remember anything other than waking up in Gotham. The transition had completely skipped him.
But while all his time in this world had been nothing but chaos and madness... he couldn't deny the certainty of this moment. He couldn't give up so easily.
He exhaled, softly.
"I don't need a reason to," he said.
Streak? Day 1/10
Early Access in Patreon.com/MimicLord. Almost finished on the lore between Artemis, Cheshire, and a couple of more characters. It's lit🔥🔥