Love Birds

Chapter Forty Four

-Athena's POV-

My knuckles hit Artemis's door with loud, desperate knocks. Come on, Artemis, I begged. The door flung open and out stepped my blond friend. She seemed to surprised to see me.

"Oh, hey Victoria. What're you doing here?" Artemis held the door for me to come in. I roamed through her house. When I was completely sure Wally wasn't home, I took a seat in the living room.

"I need to tell you something. I have to make sure you're alone," I said. Artemis nodded, her eyes wide. She locked the front door and sat across from me.

Ever since I realized my mission was coming to an end, my secret began to gnaw at me. I had to tell someone. Artemis had quickly became a friend and trusted ally. I believed I could trust her with the truth. After all, she did come from an assassin family. I hadn't met her father, Sportsmaster, but I had once trained with her sister. Cheshire visited the League of Assassins once and Ra's pitted us against each other. At that time, I was only twelve. Chesire had beaten me and earned his respect as well as mine.

Artemis also was like her sister in a way. Both were good at keeping secrets. And if Artemis would accept what I was telling her, it would be a good strategy to have someone who could cover me when I was working on my true mission.

"Alright, whatever this is about Victoria I--,"

"No. Don't call me that. My name isn't Victoria. It's...Athena," it felt nice to say my real name again, "Athena Thomas." Artemis's yellow eyebrows shot up before she went into a scowl.

"You better start explaining before I call the Team," she snapped. I took a deep breath.

"Where should I start?"

"The beginning. Now."

Trying to earn some sympathy, I flashed Artemis a pained look. But, she was just like me. The sneer remained on her face. "Well, Victoria Smith is just a cover up. My real name is Athena Thomas. And I am here on a mission to avenge my loving parents.

"I was born to a poor family. My mother, Bonnie, ran away to marry my father, Arnold. We all went into the circus when I was young. Haly's Circus," I sighed. It was way harder to expose myself to someone then I thought.

"Dick...that's why you're dating him? Because you knew him from the circus?" I could hear the accusation and judgment in her sharp voice.

"No. Let me explain," I pleaded. When Artemis nodded permission, I continued. "When I was eight years old, I had contacted all of my family and friends to come to my celebratory show of my first year as an aerial silk girl. My circus clown father had gone missing that day, but we all figured he just went into town to get me a gift. Little did I know, he had been kidnapped along with everyone who had gathered to see me.

"After the show, my mother sent me to go look for my dad. I found a letter explaining where my dad was and brought my mom to where I had found it. When we were far out of range of any other circus members, we were ambushed. Four men brought my tortured dad out.

"Bodies of all my friends and family were strewn across the grass. In front of me, the guy shot my dad. Then, he stabbed my baby brother. Finally, he cut my mom's head off," I crossed my arms. Artemis gasped and rested her hand on my knee.

"That's horrible," she mumbled, jerking her hand away. I guess she didn't like to be affectionate to someone who lied about who they were. Eh, no biggie.

"The guys captured me and tortured me for a few months before a group of assassins rescued me. Ra's Al Ghul took me in," the name caught her attention, "and he trained me. He kept me close to him, just like his daughter. That's how I know your sister, Cheshire. I fought her once.