Second Chances: Artemis

Chapter 29

"You're girlfriend?" Donna asked her daughter, looking between her and the girl who'd just walked out of her daughter's closet.

"Hi Ms. Troy. It's nice to meet you." Rachel said nervously and Donna sighed.

"Both of you, get downstairs and be ready to talk. And Zara, if you ever want to see the outside of this house before you turn 18, you'd better have a very good explanation." Donna said as Rachel walked out of the room and before Zara could follow, Donna grabbed her arm.

"I don't have a problem with you dating another girl Zara, if anything, I'm thrilled about it, since it means that you won't accidentally get pregnant." Donna said.

"Mom." Zara said in embarrassment.

"You brought this on yourself, you know that right and you know your father will be even worse." Donna said.

"I know. And mom, I promise there is a good excuse for everything. Rachel, it's more than just us being together. She needs help. As in the kind of help only you and the Titans can give her. And don't worry, I didn't tell her about any of that, but I think that she needs to know." Zara said.

"Zara, what is going on?" Donna asked her.

"I'll explain everything downstairs, with Dad present, since I only want to have to go through this once." Zara said and Donna nodded, since the fact that Zara would bring in the Titans into this, it must be important.

"If you're bringing the Titans into this, there'd better be a good reason for it." Donna said as she let Zara go, before she saw Zara's sketch books, since her daughter was one hell of an artist and she saw that Rachel was her primary subject, causing Donna to smile, since it was clear that this girl meant a lot to Zara, so depending on what she heard, she would welcome Rachel into the family.

After Donna got Garth, they sat both girls down on the couch to hear their story and Donna couldn't help but notice how nervous Rachel looked and how quick Zara was to place her hands on Rachel's to calm her down.

"Rachel, stay calm, do not lose your cool. Don't lose control." Zara said, causing both of her parents to look at her in concern.

"Rachel, if anyone should be nervous here, it's Zara, not you." Garth said.

"Sorry, it's just a habit." Rachel said.

"It's fine Rachel. Now, why don't you start from the beginning and tell us how this all got started." Donna said, ever the peacemaker.

"Rachel and I met back when we were both living on the streets. Well I was, but she would've rather done that than stay where she used to live." Zara said.

"And why is that?" Garth asked.

"Because I was being held by a convent of nuns who treated me like I was some kind of monster, but it wasn't because I'm gay. In fact, I didn't even know I was gay until after Zara helped spring me from their custody." Rachel said nervously.

"Really?" Garth asked, looking at his daughter.

"Yeah, I wasn't going to let them treat her like some kind of monster." Zara said.

"Wait, backup, you seem to be very intent on using the word monster. Why?" Donna asked.

"Because before I met Zara, I thought of myself as one. There's something wrong with me." Rachel said, looking at Zara nervously.

"It's okay, they'll understand better than you think. You can tell them." Zara assured her.

"Tell us what?" Donna asked, wondering what kind of girl her daughter had gotten involved with.

"I have nightmares. Nightmares that don't seem like nightmares and a lot of the time, they come true and they're always terrible things. And when I get angry, people get hurt. It's like there's a darkness inside me, a darkness that I can't control and I can feel it growing inside of me. It's hard to describe it." Rachel said.

"Rachel, it's okay, you can show them, it won't hurt them anymore than it can hurt me." Zara promised and Rachel reluctantly nodded as suddenly, tendrils of black energy began to spiral out of her.

"What the hell?" Garth asked as he and Donna both understood why Zara wanted to get the titans involved now.

"She has powers. Powers that she's scared of and can't fully control." Zara said as Rachel managed to reign it back in.

"Oh my god." Donna said, so many things are starting to make sense.

"Ever since I got her out of that convent, I've been doing everything I can to keep Rachel safe and take care of her to keep her from losing control. That's why I was cutting class. I couldn't let her think that I'd abandoned her and the fights were with some popular girl who always took the first swing at me and instinct took over and it doesn't help that the girl was the principal's daughter, which meant that they'd never hear my side and I'm not the only one who's gotten in trouble for fights that girl picked, because her father never stopped to consider she could do anything wrong." Zara said.

"We'll look into that later and if necessary, get a lawyer involved, but for now, let's get back to Rachel. Where has she been living?" Garth asked.

"In my old hideout, an abandoned bus is down by the docks. I thought it would be best for her to keep her away from people who could trigger her powers until we could figure out a way to help her control her powers. The only person who knew where she was was me, though after you found me, I thought that maybe I could convince her to let me tell you about her since I figured you could help her." Zara said.

"You're still in trouble for cutting class, but now that we understand why, it's not as much trouble." Garth said.

"And we do know people who can hopefully help you Rachel. Come on, let's go take a ride." Donna said and both Zara and Rachel nodded, though only Zara knew where they were going.

"I'll call the others and tell them to meet us there." Garth said.