Lost Stars

Chapter Sixteen

-Athena's POV-

My ankles were rubbed raw and my wrists were bloody. I let my head hang limply as I was dragged. Strong arms held me. I could feel the power radiating off of them. I could also feel just how little they cared for me. I tried to ignore it, but their hatred towards me was so intoxicating.

I managed to look up for a split second. The halls of the Temple were so pristine. Assassins and workers alike waltzed through, going about their lives like there wasn't a bloody girl being dragged on the sparkling marble.

We passed by a glowing room for a moment. It was quick, but I recognized the place. It was the cave that held Ra's Al Ghul's main Lazarus Pit. I wished more than anything that the assassins would stop walking. If they just left me in the middle of the floor, I could crawl down the stairs. I could drag my broken body into the life-giving Lazarus and I could escape.

As soon as I tried to make a move, a hand gripped the top stair of the cave. The assassins went stiff and paused to look behind me. The disembodied hand twitched and a body rolled onto the floor. A boy -- no doubt a boy tainted by the Lazarus Pit -- crawled around on the marble as he screamed. The assassins dropped me as they seized the guy. I couldn't tell how old he was. The assassins escorted the boy back down the stairs while he screamed.

Who was that?

I had waited for that moment. The assassins had let me go. But, I couldn't move. I stayed patiently as they dragged another prisoner away. They came back shortly after.

And the torture went on.

***

I woke up on the concrete floor of my safehouse. I guess I rolled out of my hammock...

Standing up cautiously, I walked over to a mirror and tentatively inspected my wounds. At the time, I didn't care if my stitches were perfect. But, as I looked over my work, I had done a very bad job.

Blood stained my Nightingale uniform and dried blood crusted my entire upper body. My stitches were uneven and loose. I rolled my neck back slightly and three stitches ripped out. Sighing, I plopped down in my computer chair and started again.

I pulled out my med kit. One of the many things my training taught me was that a med kit was a blessing. I didn't have a stocked box full of goodies when I was a kid, so to have one was a gift. I ripped out my poor stitching, biting down on my lip at the slight pinch. Fresh blood oozed out almost instantly.

Wow... I thought, Guess I do still have blood to lose!

I grabbed a sterile stitching needle and some actually strong stitches. With steady hands, I weaved through my bloody skin. I had become an expert at dressing my own wounds over time. Not as good as Alfred, I had come to learn, but still experienced. I made sure the stitches were straight. I tightened them where they needed to be tight and loosened them where they needed to be loose.

When the hard work was over, I reached into my box and pulled out two packs of white gauze. Stitching had coated my hands in red, also ruining the gauze. I shrugged it off and wrapped myself up. The first layer was instantly soaked in blood, so I kept applying. As I did so, I glared at the gauze Red Hood had given me.

I was mad. I had let my guard down and for what? Red Hood had taken out both my shoulders because I had let him come along for my mission. Not only that, but he had assumed he knew everything about me. He had revealed my identity and he thought he had revealed my motifs.

"Well guess what?" I shouted outloud as if Red Hood was right in my safehouse, "You don't know anything about me!"

I punched the concrete wall as hard as I could. No shocker, I couldn't feel anything. I clicked on my computer and immediately went to work.