The Hunt ⋆ Young Justice (o.h.)

five : no obligations

( CHAPTER FIVE : NO OBLIGATIONS )

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WHEN HEARNE WOKE UP, HER HEAD WAS POUNDING. The sun was up, glaring down on her, making her forehead bead with sweat.

Sand dunes were all around her, sand littered on her clothes, itching numbly against her skin. She couldn't see anything but distant rock formations. It was midday, maybe, possibly later. She couldn't exactly tell, she'd figure out where she was and what time in a moment.

And what was this outfit she was wearing? It looked like a hero's costume. Hearne had never seen it before in her life, at least not on any hero on telivision. 

The last thing she remembered was saying goodnight to Athena, staying up to read her book, and that was all. 

This was a nightmare, that was all.

Except she knew this wasn't a nightmare. This was real, undoubtedly real, and somehow she wasn't in the grassy hills of Georgia.

If they did this, she was going to lose her mind. She would hunt them down to the ends of the earth and kill them all. It was just like them to do something as sadistic as this, to not kill her once they found out she was alive, but to let her flounder until they picked her apart like wolves.

But how had they found her? And how didn't she remember anything? A drug of some sort, it had to be.

She stood and started to walk, not wanting to waste her energy on any other form of travel. She didn't know when she would see them--if it was even them--she had to save her energy.

An explosion echoed over the dunes, making her hunch down in fright as her eyes searched across the sand for the source. About a mile away, she could see smoke rising up in the sky, dark and large. They blew up a structure of some sort, or it could've have just been from blowing up sand.

Gunshots followed, and Hearne took off running, her tattoos burning under the suit as her feet barely touched the sand beneath her. Wind whistled in her ears, sand flying up beneath her feet as she ran in the opposite direction. Whoever it was, she didn't need to be caught in their battles with others. She needed to fight one thing and one thing only: the people who kidnapped her.

It didn't seem like anyone had spotted her, if they were even looking for her. And she'd be damned if when they inevitably found her that they'd take her again--or kill her.

Fuck, this was such a mess. How had anyone found her? How had they taken her? How had she let them take her? When she found these people, not even the gods could save them. She would be their hell on earth.

The sun was starting to set, creating an orange light over her. She knew who she would be praying to, and that one worked best as the sun was setting, while the other worked best at night, in their element.

Hearne sat down, taking the curved dagger from her belt. In her family, it had been both a ceremonial dagger and a defensive one. Sometimes, both. It was her mother's, passed down for three generations before it landed in Hearne's own hands. Hearne doubted it would ever land in another's.

She attempted to roll up the sleeve, but it didn't budge more than two inches up her wrist. With a huff of frustration, she cut the sleeve off, right above her shoulder, and threw the fabric to the ground. The scars on her arms were prominent, mottled dark lines littered against tan skin, with the symbol of Artemis tattoo square on her shoulder. The skin was red and flared from recent applying.

But the last time she applied it was two years ago, wasn't it? 

She didn't dwell on the fact as she took the dagger in hand, allowed energy to flow through her hand and onto it, making the blade swell with darkness, before she held it to the tattoo, her eyes shut tight as she breathed the warm air in.