Chapter Text
Elaine doesn’t regret giving the water to Ban. The past seven days have been the most wonderful, magical, happiest time of her life since her brother left. If there were a time when nothing bad happened, she would have lived past Ban’s life span. And if she ever got lonely or sad, she would have remembered this week with him to smile, but that is not this life, and she only has a few minutes left before she welcomes the light.
It's not common knowledge among the species; it's more of a myth, but it does happen.
Elaine will begin a new life, but first, she has to say goodbye to Ban.
Elaine will be reborn again, but not in the same place, with no memory of her brother or Ban.
Unless…
GOTHAM CITY
September 1, 04:155 EDT
The sounds of sirens and parties cover the whole city, but down in the Narrows, a blonde-haired girl is screaming her heart out.
Nightmares are a regular occurrence in this city, but sudden windstorms are not, unless a certain girl is stuck in the realm of dreams. Vines covered in flowers and thorns climbing up the apartment towards a certain window are normal, but the villainess is not the one to create these plants.
“Artemis! Artemis, wake up! Artemis!” Her mom shouted and grabbed her daughter’s shoulders to wake her up as the windstorm grew stronger and the vines cracked the window.
In her dream, no… nightmare is about fire, blood, pain, and it felt real, like it's a memory, droning in loneliness, sadness, grief, and pain. There is no end, just a cycle stuck in misery. But there is a dim light getting closer, and red eyes fill her mind alongside a…
Artemis jerks awake from her mother’s screams with a gasp and quickly sits up, trying to get air back into her lungs. Sweat covers her body; her skin is pale and raw, her gray-blue eyes wild, searching for the threat, and her hair is messy and sticking everywhere on her body. All she can hear is the storm in her head and her heartbeat racing so fast it might as well come out of her chest.
“Artemis!” Her mom calls out and is relieved that her youngest daughter is okay.
Paula wants nothing more than to pull her into a hug, but she has to wait because her daughter needs a second to focus and center herself. It felt like hours when it was only a few minutes. The windstorm finally died down to a gentle breeze, and the vines were gone, but the flowers stayed. Artemis twitched a little and looked at her mother, wanting that hug, and slowly moved closer to the wheelchair, but her mom raised herself off the chair onto the bed and held out her arms. Her baby fell right into her arms for a hug.
It has been said before that no one can escape nightmares, whether in life or dreams. For Paula, it's dreams. During her time in prison, she wasn’t scared of serving time, but knowing what got her in prison, or rather, who put her there. She was afraid for her girls because if her husband, who coldly watched her bleed from a gunshot wound that was meant for him, left her on the ground, only saying she would have gotten in the way of the plans he had for their daughters. Those were her nightmares that her daughters would never know peace and would only be treated as weapons.
Artemis has the misfortune of both nightmares of her childhood and the emotions that feel like they don’t belong to her, but do. Life is kill or be killed.
“Was it the same nightmare again?” she asked softly, rubbing Artmeis’s back while being careful of her long hair still stuck to the skin.
“Yes…” Artemis mumbled into her mom’s shoulder as the shaking in her hands finally went away.
“Do you want to-”, Paula was cut off, but she wasn’t surprised by her teenage daughter's sudden movement, only held on tighter.
“No!” Artemis tried to move, but her mom was still so strong, and her hug felt so lovely, she melted back into it and whispered, “Well, maybe…”
“Take your time,” Paula told her alert daughter, and smoothed her hair back into place while waiting for Artemis to clear her head and relax just a little.
Artemis took a deep breath and used a breathing exercise to center herself. Once she felt calm enough, she said, “I-it was the same dream with the forest fire, someone calling out Elaine, and-and red eyes .”
Paula already knew what was in the dream, but hearing it always brought a chill up her spine. Her brave girl has been through so much and is still suffering from life, from her dreams, and from the unknown. But then she got an idea, about a little secret that only she and her daughter know, the windstorm and vines didn’t show up out of the blue.
“Maybe you should tell your friends about your dreams and pow-”, she tried telling her daughter, but was cut off again. In Paula’s mind, she curses her husband for making her daughter fear calling for help, but she does understand why Artemis doesn’t want to reveal her secret just yet.
“No, not yet, I can't, and I don't intend to. At least not now. Batty already knows and promised not to tell, but I can't risk them finding out. Plus, they’re under control, more or less,” Artemis tells her worried mother, and hugs her tightly, listening to her heartbeat as the dream fades away for now.