Entangling Justice -Collab with Elie Starr

This is the story of how I died. Don't worry, this is actually a very fun story and the truth is, it isn't even mine. This is the story of a girl named Artemis. And it begins with the stars.

One day, a lone star fell from the skies, landing on a cliff, from where a single flower grew from it. This flower held the power to heal, and all throughout the kingdom, it was searched for, in order to save the Queen, who was ill and with child. It was not found by the king's men, however, but by a tall, built man, named Lawrence Crock, many years ago. Now, he was not your average man, no, he was very old, older than the kingdom, but the flower kept him youthful.

How you may ask? Well, the flower itself, healed, but the pollen, he had discovered, harmed. More specifically, it took the youth of a victim, and transferred it to someone else. So, every few months, he'd go to the flower with his latest prey, and sing to it, watching transfixed as the flower restored his youth and agility.

To his horror, one day, the castle's soldiers happened upon the right path, and at the end, the flower. They took it to their kingdom, and with it, saved their Queen. Her baby was born safely; an adorable little girl with golden locks, tinged with green. Desperate for the power he had lost, Lawrence crept into the castle, wrapping the baby's hair around a mouse he had captured and brought along. As he sang, he watched as her hair began to glow a shade of green, and slowly, the mouse began to die, it's life transferring to him, making him younger once more.

He fled the castle, taking the young Princess Artemis with him, to be raised as his own, away from the kingdom and her parents. He would train her to shoot down creatures with a bow he had build and hand-crafted arrows, and taught her how to properly wrap her hair around the creatures, sucking the life force out of them, and into him. Eventually, she moved on from creatures and to bad men, whom her father brought to her for justice.

One day, Lawrence went away for a couple of days, leaving Artemis alone. He instructed her to not use her hair under any circumstances. Artemis instead trained with her arrow, not aiming to hurt, just for practice. However, just her luck, she struck something down. It was a tiny green fairy, with auburn hair, and the arrow had pierced her delicate gossamer wing. Her eyes were closed, however, the young girl knew the fairy lived, but it was badly hurt

Artemis had no idea what to do, so she gently bandaged the broken wing, and hid the fairy away in her room, not telling her father about the exciting discovery she made. The fairy, whom Artemis later learned was named M'gann, eventually stayed around once she regained her health, and kept the girl company. It was M'gann that introduced her to the wonder of books, when she stayed alone at the tower when her father was away. And it was in those books that Artemis learned of magic, and the possibility that her hair could do more than just hurt people.

And it was this desire that eventually caused us to meet. My name is Wally West, and this is the story of how I died.

The sun was but a sliver on the horizon when Artemis awoke to the buzz of wings and the smile of her friend.

"Morning M'gann." The young teen grumbled, her eyes straining to stay open. Although she had made the fairy promise to wake her at dawn for training, it was an easy thing to regret, with sleep in her eyes and an ache in her limbs.

"I know, you'd rather stay asleep, but it's better if your father didn't come here and start lecturing you again." M'gann replied with a tiny shudder. Last time Artemis decided to sleep in, Lawrence stormed into the young girl's room, and nearly destroyed everything she owned, and with luck M'gann saved herself from the falling debris, without being seen.

"I suppose you're right," the blonde sighed, pulling herself out of bed and into her clothes. As she turned to the fluttering fairy to continue, she watched her vanish, only seconds before the door opened, and in stormed her father.

"You're up, good," he huffed. "I'm heading down to the market for something. I'd like you to be training when I get back."

"Will you...Will you be bringing me back something? To practice with?" She asked, trying to avoid using 'practice on'. His smile was the only answer she needed. As he reminded her once more to use only her bow and arrows until he returned, he was gone, leaving Artemis alone. Her shoulders sagged, and she looked at M'gann sadly when she reappeared. "Do you ever think it'll be different? Do you ever think...I could stop hurting people, M'gann?"

"It's not your fault," the fairy chimed as the blonde went in search of her bow and arrows. "Maybe one day you'll find a better use for your hair!"

Artemis snorted, a smirk appearing on her face. "Yeah right! What am I going to do, smack someone with it?" The good humour disappeared as soon as it came, with a sigh Artemis sunk to the floor, bringing her knees up to her chest, head lowered, eyes closed. "What am I saying, I can't get out of here."

But M'gann wasn't one for giving up easily, she was the positive voice that kept Artemis going. She grabbed her friend's quiver, and slowly brought it to Artemis' hand, getting the latter to look up. "Don't knock it till you try it."

Artemis shook her head. "I'm not escaping. Do you know what he'd do to me?"

"You could ask?" M'gann offered.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," she pondered.

"And, you have all those books about magic I brought from the city for you," M'gann continued, smiling widely. "The man I got them from, he knows a lot. He might be able to help."

Artemis quickly found the smile contagious. "I'll ask, when he gets back from the market. I'll ask him to take me to the city."

When Wally West awoke that day, he had no idea he'd be committing a crime. He was the kind of guy who stayed out of the way, respected the law, and put his loyalties with his friends. This was, however, also his weakness. Because here he was, climbing rooftops and ladders, headed for the castle's treasury to help one of his best friends steal something.

But that didn't mean he was happy about it.

"What are we doing here, Roy?" he whispered, trying to keep his voice low so that the girl leading them, with wild black hair and some hold over his best friend, couldn't hear him.

"I told you."

"Why are we doing it, I mean," Wally clarified, trying hard not to throttle his friend. He'd been fairly vague with his answers on their journey here, and it was beginning to irritate the redhead. "We're stealing, Roy, from the King and Queen."

"It's not like they'll notice some trinkets missing," he shrugged.

"Trinkets?" the girl ahead of them laughed, turning to face them, balancing nimbly on the edge of the roof. "You think that's what we're here for?" She scoffed. "That wouldn't earn us enough money, Roy, and you know it. I'm thinking something bigger. Something shinier; important."

They were only a few rooftops away now. Soon, there would be no turning back. Wally pulled on Roy's arm, stopping them as the girl moved closer to the treasury. "Money for what? What have you gotten yourself into, Roy?"

Face haggard, the redhead spoke, grimacing. "Jade's carrying my child, Wally. I don't have a choice."

Wally's face displayed too many emotions. Between shocked, horrified, disgusted, anger, disappointment and many others, Roy didn't even know the human face could hold so many expressions. Wally's immediate response took the form of a high pitched squeal "What!"

Roy shushed him.

Jade whipped around, her killer glare showing as she stalked back to where Wally stood, and hissed, "Be quiet! You want the guards to find us?"

"N-no?" Wally hated her for what she was making her friend do, but no way was he going to take her on, she seemed fierce enough to pummel him in one swipe.

"Good. Now, you can go get the crown." Jade replied dismissively, turning around and walking back to the skylight she desired. "Here we go."

"Wait, why me-" Wally then registered what was going on. "Hold up,, you want to steal what?"

Jade looked at Roy with an unamused expression. "Seriously? You couldn't have grabbed a friend with a bigger brain? Or at least one with some hearing skills?"

Roy walked up to her, eyes narrowed. "Listen, you may not like him, but he's still my friend, and I won't have you insulting him."

Jade rolled her eyes, but nodded. "It's your funeral." She turned back to the skylight, and gently opened the hatch, grabbing the rope around her waist. "Come here kid."

"I have a name." Wally growled as he went to stand by her.

"And I don't remember, and could seriously care less." Jade replied, tying the rope around his waist.

The redhead raised his arms, flinching at the proximity of the older woman. "Clearly someone has no boundaries."

"Enough." Roy's curt response came. "We're here, you're going down there, stop complaining before we get caught!"

"Why do I need to go down here? I'm quite sure I'm not experienced enough in stealing to be doing this!" Wally was now having a small panic attack. What if he was dropped, what if he failed, what if the guards caught him what if-

"Kid!" Jade shook him none too kindly. "For your information, Roy isn't exactly a small build, he's got those gorgeous arms of his-"

"Too much info!" Wally scrunched his eyes shut at the mental images these two were bringing him.

"Baby. And I'm carrying a kid, not the best idea to have an expectant mother dangling several feet over the air with just rope. Plus, you're younger. Get the crown, and we'll pull you up. Bon Voyage." Jade started pushing him back.

Wally flailed his arms, his mouth open to let out some exclamation, but Jade slapped her hand over his mouth.

"One word kid, and I will personally gut you." Jade's black eyes flashed in anger. "Understood?"

The redhead meekly nodded as Roy grabbed the rope tightly, and Jade, shoved a satchel onto his hands, before pushing him back into the skylight hole. Wally automatically flipped so he was looking down at the scene he was about to drop in. A couple of guards were standing on duty, but all looking to the closed doorway.

He saw the crown on the pedestal, with colourful crystals, and intricate gold weaved workmanship. He stretched his arm a bit, and got a hold of it, placing it inside the bag. As he tugged on the rope as a signal, one officer sneezed.

"Oh, hay fever got you too?" Wally asked, a smirk gracing his features for the first time that day.

"Yeah." He nodded, until he realized the voice was coming from behind him, his eyes widened, spinning around to catch the intruder, hold on his spear tightening, but saw no one.

"Get better gentlemen!" Wally exclaimed, disappearing over the skylight with a salute.

"Thief!" Yelled several guards, shaking their fists and running outside to catch him

"Idiot!" Jade berated him, smacking him upside the head as they ran down the roof, jumping to the adjacent one with expertise.

"What! The man was sick! Who would want to come in to work with hay fever?" Wally shrugged, putting the satchel's strap over his shoulder, freeing both his hands. Jade fought the urge to throttle him, her hands balling into fists. Roy pulled him out of her range, before sighing.

"C'mon, we've got to get out of here. They'll be on us any moment now!"

And then they were off, back the way they'd come, across roofs and ladders, towards the outskirts of the city and the treeline wherein they could hopefully vanish. As the shouts of the guards rose up from below them, Wally's stomach twisted into a knot of nerves that hadn't been there before. Something wasn't right-something would surely go wrong.

Something needed to be done.

The closer they made it to the forest outside the city, the more he knew precisely what to do. He couldn't get them get caught, else they'd be arrested, and the unborn baby Roy had told him about would have no chance. So that chance was exactly what Wally intended on providing.

"Come on, we're almost in the clear!" Jade yelled, ducking between trees and into a clearing. As the redheads followed, she began to grin. They were going to get away with this. They were going to make it out with the crown, sell it for a wondrous amount of money, and live happily with their child. They were going to-

-run face-first into a very large cliff-side that had boxed them in. "No," she breathed, staring upwards, feeling dread creep into the pit of her stomach. Behind her, Roy and Wally nearly collided with one another, skidding to a stop, frowning.

"What's wrong?"

"Look!" She shrieked, pointing to their newest obstacle. The boys grimaced. The sounds of the guards grew closer. Wally made a split-second decision.

"Roy, hoist me up," he stepped forward, outstretching his hands towards the cliff. The other redhead stepped forward, but Jade easily got in the middle, frowning.

"The bag, first, please."

"Err-what?" Wally's brows creased in confusion.

"The bag, with the crown," she said curtly, her hand reaching towards it. "Give it to me."

"Are we really going to do this?" Roy groaned in exasperation. "Jade, please, you can trust-"

"Now."

Wally obliged, swinging the bag off his shoulder and into her hand. It didn't quite work with his plan, but he supposed he could improvise. As soon as she had it, she passed him, one hand on the cliff-side, and looked back at Roy. "I'm going up first."

"Your girlfriend is demanding," Wally whispered as his friend went to help her. Roy shot him a look, but said nothing, helping her up. Only, she wasn't nearly close enough to grab the edge and pull herself onto the ledge, and so, Wally stepped forward, deciding now was his chance. "Roy, stay still, this is going to be as unpleasant for you as it will be for me."

"What are you talking-"

The older redhead was silenced when Wally began climbing on his back, and upwards. Jade let out an undignified shriek as the young man pulled at her hair and weaseled his way onto her shoulders, reaching for the cliff. "Kid, I swear, when I get up there-"

"You won't," he grinned, and she looked up to see him fully on the upper level, bag containing the crown in hand. He continued, ignore the stream of curses now flying from her lips. "Look, I'm happy for you, Roy. She seems like a nice harpy to be settling down with. But that's not something you do in jail, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to take this off your hands for a while."

As Jade continued to threaten to do terrible things to his best friend, Roy paled, lowering her to the ground, staring upwards. "Wally, what are you doing?"

"Saving you a lot of trouble, bud. You and her, get out of here, lie low, get by. I'll find someone to sell the crown to, and send you the money. They didn't see you back at the treasury. They don't know you're involved in this."

"Wally, I don't think you should-"

"Goodbye, Roy. Harpy," he smiled, though it was strained. And then he disappeared over the edge and off into the forest, running as fast as his legs would take him. Ducking tree after tree, thankfully never tripping over a bush or root, and making it as far as he could before the sound of hooves reached him.

They were closer than he had imagined. Unreasonably so. But, as he looked over his shoulder, he realized why. They hadn't just sent any set of guards after him. They had sent the best. They had sent the captain, the man with the black suit of armor, the knight feared most among criminals far and wide. The Dark Knight.

"He's over there!" a voice much younger than any guard he'd heard before cried, and Wally groaned. Not only did he have to deal with the captain, but his juniorofficer, too? If he made it out of this even remotely in piece, Roy was going to owe him a large bit of land. With a nice view. Maybe even his own castle. Yes, he thought that very fitting a price for stealing the crown of the lost princess and selling it.

And he wasn't even sure how he was going to accomplish that. Because right now, just escaping seemed like too large of a task. Especially since a particularly large white horse had just strode into view, carrying a stout young man with jet black hair barely visible beneath his helmet. Panicking, Wally held the bag tighter, closer, and took off in the opposite direction. He made it three feet before crashing to the ground, something weighing him down.

He half-turned, mid-roll, to see the boy had jumped from his horse after him. And it had hurt. The back of his head, there the runt's helmet had collided, throbbed painfully. But there were hands on the crown-bag that weren't his and that took all his attention from the pain. "Hope you don't mind me, I'll just propriate this bag and it's contents for the kingdom." He said, tugging the bag in his direction. "And placing you under arrest."

He should've been more worried for himself then than for the boy's language, but he was finding it a bit hard. So instead, he focused on the fact that the masked officer was making off with the bag, grabbed hold, and pulled hard enough to send them rolling down the hill they'd been at the crest of. They rolled, over and over one another, at war over the bag, and never even noticed when the edge came up short and fell away beneath them.

Thankfully, however, a large ledge jutted out halfway down, and they slammed into it. The breath knocked momentarily out of them both, they staggered apart, the bag falling between the two. Wally glanced over, watching the officer shake his head, lifting the helmet that lay slightly off-kilter. Jumping at the chance quite literally, he leapt at the bag, grabbing hold. His only problem? The boy had recovered and made his move as well, but had kept his momentum, and together, they went off the ledge, arms flailing as they fell. Trying to grasp at something stable, or even simply the bag, plummeting downwards with them.

Finally, Wally managed to get a hold of the strap, seconds before he collided with the surface of something cold and wet-water, and lots of it. He did his best not to swallow enough to suffocate, and kicked his best in order to go upwards, to the much needed source of air. When he could safely breathe again, crown-bag still grasped safely in hand, he looked around, and grinned. The junior officer lay on the shore of the small lake, face down, and still looked like he was breathing.

So Wally took no time before running the other way as fast as he could. Passing tree after tree, avoiding root and bush, and finally disappearing under a curtain of vines. The clearing beyond, he thought, would mean freedom, safety and a chance to get out of this in one piece. But of course things were never that easy for him, and he found himself at a dead-end. Mountains and cliffs on all sides, and in the middle, a large, winding tower.

"A tower?" he frowned, shaking the water from his red locks. "What's a tower doing all the way out here?"

As the sound of hooves echoed and bounced along the rock walls behind him, he grimaced, and made his way forward. In no time he was scaling the tower, brick by brick, higher and higher. He thought about what such a thing could be doing all on it's own, so far from the city. He wondered if he should be worried. But really, the prospect of somewhere safe and far from the authorities close on his tail were far more promising.

It was until he made it all the way inside that he realized just how terrible an idea it was. Because something hard and wooden and rather unpleasant connected with the back of his head, and rather than seeing what lay beyond the threshold of this strange tower, all Wally West saw was blackness.

"Aw, crap!" Artemis groaned, looking at the mangled bow in her hand. "It broke on his head!"