"I knew it." He coughed as he dragged himself to the corner darkness of the steel room, careful not to disrupt the various surgical utensils placed neatly on the shelves.
He'd been running all night, the soles of his shoes rubbed raw against the dirt and gravel, his hair a flattened mess with each drop of sweat accumulating on his head, dripping down to his forehead and onto his lips. The veins on his arms were pulsating, he was exhausted and could feel every rush of blood with each increase of adrenaline at every footstep, every branch break and those were few because he was dealing with professionals…and dealing with them all alone.
He found himself at Cadmus, it was the place he had been watching for the past few days, stealthily he had thought, in hopes of finding some evidence, any evidence that would give the league cause for a warrant. He learned too late that he'd been giving away his position in ways unbeknownst to a rookie like him. Now they had chosen to strike and after a good run in the forest, he'd backtracked all the way to Cadmus, right inside the building, falling down elevator shafts using the ropes and hooks of his arrows to keep him from crashing his skull against the bottom of wires and steel. He ended up in a tiny closet left open by what seemed to be a doctor running at the sound of a warning call. If his leg hadn't been cut he'd be attempting to reach the vents above, but no…he was too weak.
He'd felt around his quiver to find all but one of his arrows had been used on his assailants, missing the mark occasionally with each new wave of panic that set in as the number of Ra's men grew larger. It didn't help they were trained to kill, it didn't help he had just taken the mantle of Speedy a few months ago, his own training paling in comparison with these master assassins and there was only moments left before they captured him and did God knows what.
Why me; the looming question for any one at death's door or a simply a predicament that meant being prey. It could very well be that being the newest on the block decided his fate as all the other sidekicks were heavily guarded by their mentors or perhaps better equipped or maybe the deciding factor was just the idea that he was the easiest target, alone in a city, with a few arrows and no one to watch him, to warn him. All he had were stories of the Shadows…and apart from his reflexes with a bow and arrow, he could only call himself a screwed up kid two steps away from becoming a drug addict.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this." He sighed as his body went limp at the touch of a needle to his neck, only his arm moved now, and with it he yanked his last bow from his quiver and stabbed whoever it was behind him. No sound was made but he could feel the skin as the arrow broke through flesh. Someone grabbed his arm, snapping it; he grimaced, keeping his mouth shut as he refused to scream. His eyelids seemed to cascade slowly as the needle's substance began to take its effect.
"They'll come." He whispered to the blackness, his chin sliding slight across the ground, the last hope of a boy terrified, absolutely terrified.
…
When he awoke he found himself in a tube of some sort; his hands and legs were bound with steal, he could hear the buzz of computers running and the soft voices of the staff. He shook his head and began to scream for someone, anyone out there. He needed to meet with Green Arrow the following night for training and patrolling, he'd be late…they'd notice by then…but until then he needed to exhaust all resources to escape.
"Quiet ." He heard a slickly coaled voice say. He didn't know it, but it belonged to Ra's Al Ghul himself and the tone of his voice added to the terror, of course being the cheeky fellow he was, this terror was not a feeling to be exposed, no it was to be repressed and in it's place would come his mask of confidence.
"Call me Roy!" He said jovially.
"Roy then. My name is Ra's al Ghul, I'd hope my reputation has reached you despite being a child of Star city and nothing more." Ghul stepped out of the shadows and nodded at the young boy, no more than 15 years old.
"Nice to meet you sir. Nice presumption there but I'm a bit more than a kid from the city, you know that though. I mean look at me, I don't go around dressed in tights and a feathered hat for the ladies!" He winked at Ra's.
"Well I suppose your take on the situation at hand is refreshing. Most of our prisoners would complain." Ra's was amused by Roy's take, he found it endearing and perhaps if things were different he might let the boy go, but being the type of man that took precedence for the majority over the few he waved the thought away and motioned for the scientist at hand to being the procedure. Roy's eyes widened, his voice got caught in a swirl of emotions.
"You can't break me." He said sternly, seriously and with a maturity far beyond his years.
"Is that so?" a new voice came from the shadows as Roy felt the sting and burn of electrocution. Another needle sunk into his skin, drawling blood, he shook his head and called out for Ollie, although his screams were a blur of words as so the name of his mentor came out as "Oh God!" Ra's sighed and tapped his fingers over the board of buttons. Lex, the new voice, smiled wickedly.
"How about now?" Lex spoke in unmistakable sadistic delight. Roy, having closed his eyes in anguish, opened them slowly, shaking all throughout his body, pushed his lips together and lifted the saliva under his tongue to spit against the glass before him.
"Can't….break…" He screamed again before he finished the sentence, "me" Lex, a man who revealed in obedience and scoffed and it's opposite, motioned for them to stop.
"Let's change that, shall we?" He ordered the guards to release him. Ra's looked over at Lex skeptically.
" what on Earth are you doing?"
"We're going to need those clothes for our little pawn." Lex said frankly.
They stripped Roy of his clothing, guard after guard watching over him to keep him from escaping. All the same the boy tried to kick and swerve out of their grip, making it to the doorway before Ra's himself gave him a kick to the chest that sent him flying across the room. He pushed himself up and readied his stance, in sensing another guard behind him he swung his arm out, wrapping it around and pulling back, the guard squirmed helplessly until the lack of oxygen, cut off by Roy's arm, rendered him unconscious. Lex and Ra's applauded his efforts as he slumped to the ground. Having not slept in over 24 hours, the chase from before, and the drug that still lingered in his blood, this stunt was his last. Another guard followed, he gave a half-hearted punch before falling into the guard's hands. More came to strip him of his clothing and then bind him again. With nothing but his boxer shorts on they had him inside the freezing tube, Ra's sighed once more as he walked up to Lex who now carried a knife.
"And what exactly are you doing? No one will no he's gone, his clone with make sure of that."
"Clone?" Roy choked as the guard fastened the last of his bindings.
"Have you not read 1984?" Lex laughed as he held the knife to Roy's skin, pushing it in to leave a superficial wound.
"It's one thing to kill someone, but that makes them a martyr, it's best to break them and make them our own soldier, release them into society and then kill them." Roy spat onto Luthor's bald head, taking pleasure at his final f* you moment.
"Look, I gave it a little shine" He said with his breathing labored, and his body collapsing on itself. Lex pulled back and wiped the saliva from his head, turning to look at Ra's who had a smile on his lips.
"There's no need to kill the boy, his genetic material is of better use to us fresh, alive."
"True." Lex admitted as he twisted the knife in his hands, that was the original plan and he hated deviating from plan A unless it was completely necessary…still…
"You should know," Lex began, "No one is coming, a clone will take your place. A clone will live your life. A clone will train with your mentor, a clone will make all the friends you wanted to have, Robin, Kidflash, Aqualad…they will never care for you, they will never know you."
"Green Arrow and Black Canary will-"
"No, they will not notice. Don't hold onto that hope. I'm well aware they'll discover the truth eventually but by then it will be too late, by then your face will be the one they look to in horror as the traitor. If they bother looking for you after the truth is revealed they will not look long because they will think you dead. Perhaps you will be by then, but I promise this, it will be years before that occurs. Your first meeting with your fellow sidekicks," he gave the boy a kick in the gut, smiling as Roy coughed blood and watched it as it fell to steel of the tube looking a brilliant shade of red, "yes those sidekicks will be friends with our creation and love him, your mentor will be the father figure to your clone and never realize the difference, he will attend your clone's graduation as well your precious little surrogate mother and your induction to the Justice league will be the honor of Roy Harper, the pawn of the Light." An applause came from the back, stepping forward Vandal Savage was still clapping.
"Luthor, I couldn't have said it better myself." He stepped closer to Roy, touching his forehead, sending an iciness to Roy's heart.
"You will live in darkness and when you awake the way of the Light will have prevailed." With that Lex cut across Roy's arm, slicing the hand and forearm off in one clean streak. Roy screamed a bloody screaming of one in the utmost excruciating pain, his head fell down from shock but a glimpse of life remained as he mumbled, "I'm going to be a hero" those being the words he had said to Ollie when he agreed to train him…those being the words that came to mind in the pain, not completely thought through but nonetheless it was the memory his brain, or perhaps his heart chose to play as his slipped into a deep slumber.
"A hero…"