𝘿𝙍𝘼𝙂𝙊𝙉, young justice

Chapter Four

THERE ARE NO wonderlands for people like us.

     Those words rang like an infinite echo within Jaye's mind many days later, soaring through the night sky on yet another patrol through the city as the night provided it cover.

     Why was it still even coming out? Taking out those who plagued this city like a disease?

     What do you think you're trying to prove?

     There wasn't even any crime tonight, and that in itself was almost laughable. Unbelievable — it couldn't find a single crime in Gotham City.

     Some hero it was.

     Rumbling deep within its throat, the wyvern ducked its head, curved its wings, and carved a steep banking turn, arcing over the city by the glow of silver moonlight peeking through the heavy clouds which barricaded the sky, cloaking it in pale silver.

     The night air had done little to clear its head, and instead had seemed to further enrage it as it had more time to think about how utterly useless everything it and Artemis had done would prove to be. Gotham City was no safer with a dragon patrolling it, just as the world would be no different if it weren't here.

     Its existence, in the end, didn't matter.

     Releasing a deep groan from the depths of its throat, Jaye angled its wings upon seeing the apartment it called home, glimpsed a lone figure sitting on the rooftops, awaiting its return.

     Artemis.

     Plunging its enormous figure into a dive toward the ground, the wyvern relished, if only for a moment, the feeling of the wind blasting its reptilian face. But, like all things, it didn't last long before it was forced to fan out its wings to slow its descent, landing on the roof with enough force to rattle the walls.

     The blonde archer turned to face her friend, arching a single eyebrow. "Find anything out there?" The question drifted through the warm air, and the beast rumbled softly with a slight shake of its massive head in response.

     Artemis sighed, walking to the edge of the building again and kneeling down, her gray eyes flashing over the streets once more as though willing for something to happen.

     Shifting so it was only the size of a large dog, Jaye came up beside its friend, gazing out across the city wistfully. The air smelled strongly of smoke and grime, nothing fresh about it, and yet . . .

     . . . and yet its lungs craved it each night like a drug, desperate for unfiltered, natural air, no matter how polluted it was.

     It nudged Artemis with its snout, giving a deep growl at her to draw her attention away from the city lights, a way of insisting it was time to return to their shared room before Paula became suspicious of their silence.

     Its friend nodded once, getting to her feet elegantly and laying a hand on Jaye's nose, a sorrowful smile painted on her lips. Then, she swung over the side of the building and through her bedroom window, followed a moment later by the dragon.

     As soon as it landed on the bed, however, there was a call from just outside their room.

     "Artemis! Could you come out here, please?"