The Proposal

No more running

Staring down into Bucky's darkening blue eyes, Artemis shivers at the sight of this incredibly strong man on his knees before her, willing to submit himself to whatever it was she needed in this moment. But the problem was that, not even she knew what she needed right this second other than for everything to just stop. He told her he’d give her control over himself. But that was a daunting thing. Truly. Take this pose Bucky was still in. Kneeling at her feet with his hands clasped behind his back, his head now tipped back with those gorgeous blue eyes of his locked firmly on her face with an expression of pure adoration on his. It was a lot to be given by someone out of left field.

Because this was something Artemis had never engaged in before with any man she’d been with in the past. It was never her scene. Never something she’d ever sought out or felt like she’d be interested in. But this man, right now? Artemis was finding herself contemplating the offer he had just presented her with real seriousness. With everything happening because of who her family was, her life was quickly spiraling out of her control. The order of which had up until just a couple days ago, been so simple. Simple because Artemis knew who she was and her place in the world. 

But now? Now that is all gone. Sure Artemis knew she had been abandoned as a child by her mother on Charles’ doorstep. In all of the time since then with no return of the woman who’d given birth to her, Artemis had just figured she would never get to meet or know either her parents. Unfortunately that was the same sad story for thousands of kids who’ve been abandoned by their parents. And like them, she had learned to move on and lived productive lives. 

Then Germany happened. 

That weird deja vu she’d felt while they were there made sense to her now. Perhaps she’d been there before when she was a child. Before Calliope had given her over to Charles and the rest of the X-men to raise. There was a lot of her life before she was sent to Salem, NY that Artemis didn’t know. Again, it could be because she’d been so little. But even young children around the age of four or five had vague memories of people and places that were important to them. Not her. There was nothing. All Artemis’ memories began when she woke up at the school.

Bypassing all of that. Currently, just days ago, Artemis was a hero in the eyes of the world. Someone who, with her fellow mutants, helped police the mutants who broke the law. Who in her down time had been a part time archery instructor at the same school that she’d gone to and still lived in. But now she was a lying, murdering mutant in the eyes of all who would read that file on her. All because of who her mother was and their people. 

And here is where it all came back around. Where it was all falling apart. Everything Artemis knew about her past, which had been nothing really, was a carefully constructed lie by her mother. A lie that Artemis had lived and breathed because it was all she had. It didn’t matter that Artemis loved her life at Charles’ school. Or her time with Logan here in Canada. It was all tainted now. 

Then to find out one of her fiercest enemies was actually her family… That has been a mind trip all on its own. And to top it all off! The role she’d been assigned to help her people by joining S.H.I.E.L.D. was now in jeopardy. The U.N. could use this fact about her family as a way to prove that all mutants are cut from the same cloth as the Crimson Sparrows. Completely throwing back Mutant rights away for the innocents who had nothing to do with the murderous lot. All because the worlds’ governments would say that they were hiding in plain sight.

Steve and Bucky were right. The committee could say that in the end all mutants would use their powers to murder and manipulate the humans. Scaring the humans who were easily swayed by fear, inciting the same old race war that has only recently in the last couple of decades has finally died down a bit with the Avengers previous inclusion of Wanda and Pietro. The Sokovian twins had shown the world that not all mutants were bad. Or rather they might have started that way, but had thankfully seen the error of their ways.