"Well?" The voice is gruff, expectant, to the point. Not that anyone'd expect anything less from Roy. "Where is he?" The archer had just strolled right into Mount Justice, quiver knocking against his back as the speaker buzzed out 'Recognized; Red Arrow, B-06.'
He stood there now, arms crossed over his broad chest, minute frown showing on his lips. The figure he'd been speaking to, dressed in all tight black with a blue emblem over his chest, faltered in his own cheerful expression. "Hey, R.A. Nice to see you too. How long has it been? Oh, thanks for your concern, but I'm doing fin-" "Where is he?" Repeats the clone, cutting off his friend's sarcastic banter. "You said he was on business with Aquaman; last month. I haven't been able to contact him since-" "Really complicated, something about eradicating mutant jellyfish, even took Aquagirl to help-" "Bull, Nightwing, Aquaman could have handled it himself-" "Actually, from what I heard, cobra venom was involved-" "Stop lying!" Snaps Roy, eyes narrowed, eyebrows drawn together which crinkles his mask. His fists clench so tightly that the knuckles turn white. "There's something you're not telling me. You know where Kal is, and you know what he's doing." Accuses the archer, stabbing a finger at the younger hero's chest.
Amazingly, the other male's face remains impassive. Having dealt with the red-haired archer's fiery temper before, he's not that phased by it now. The only gesture to symbolise he's uncomfortable is a quick brush of fingers against his neck, before Dick shakes his head. "…I don't think you wanna know, Roy, it was a complete disaster." The raven-haired male can actually see the clone's jaw set, his teeth clench and unclench. "…Go on." Comes the response at last from Red, and, reluctantly, Nightwing nods and folds his hands behind his back. "Can't tell you the whole thing-" "I'm a part of the League!" "Yeah, but not a part of the team. 'Way,{Not anyway, there's only one way to say this} it wasn't a mutant jellyfish mission. It was dangerous, but they all knew what they were getting into, facing up against Black Manta." The dark-haired male's expression darkens at the name, and Red Arrow takes not, narrowing his eyes once more. "Aquagirl- You know, Tula? She died in rockslide when one of Manta's beams destabilised the structure she was taking cover under, and-" "What?" "Kal didn't take it well. Brooding for weeks, taken off active duty because he was too angry-" "Why didn't he-" "Tell you? Think he tried, but you weren't there."
Grayson pauses for a moment, looking over the Archer and seeing how he's taking it. The whites of his mask stretched, no doubt due to his widened eyes, Roy had shock and concern written all over his face, as well as little bit of frustration. Nightwing could see his fists were clenched to whiteness again and closed his own eyes. "That's not all." Dick's voice is quieter, tone softer, as if talking to a scared child. He didn't want to be the one to break the news. "Kaldur's father, is Black Manta! Kept from him by Aquaman until Kal went to go avenge Tula-" "No!" But the former Robin keeps going, ignoring the fact that Roy's shoulders are shaking. "Aqualad basically deserted the team and joined his dad, nobody's really sure how it happened, but he… Was under an insane amount of stress n'grief, Roy. But from his point of view, it's easy to understand, we were all changing so much-"
"I get it, okay? Shut up already." The voice is so deadly calm Dick has to look up to make sure it's Red, and not some sort of shapeshifting supervillian. "You alienated him." A tinge of anger and accusation shows in the blank tone. "None of you even tried caring for him, I bet. Just like none of you cared when he was in that cage of fire, and when he tried to keep you all together in Northern India-" But Nightwing cuts in again, exasperated. "You weren't there, you don't know what happened." The redhead's eyes are narrowed now, glaring at his friend, but the raven-haired male doesn't back down, meeting his gaze head on.
The two former sidekicks stand there for several moments, saying nothing, staring eachother down, waiting for the other to give in, when Roy finally speaks, raising his head even higher. "I almost forgot why I really refused to join the team." He mutters, hiding a smirk of triumph as he sees Nightwing's eyebrows crinkle. "It's because it's turned so pathetic-" "Shove it, RA. You're upset over Aqualad, I know. But that doesn't give you authorization to take it out on me or the rest of the team." Dick's words are smooth, calculated, and leave Roy looking slightly taken aback. "Big talk, for the bird boy who never cared-" "Never cared? RA, listen to yourself!" The archer glowers at the big bat's protégé, but said protégé doesn't seem to notice. "We all cared, he was our leader-" "He's my best friend!" Roars the clone in protest, fed up of Nightwing's talk.
"I-"
"Shut up!"
"Roy-"
"Just shut up!"
"Roy!"
"Enough."
"The two of you have been making enough noise to draw half of Gotham's villains to your location by now." The redhead recognizes the voice instantly, much before he sees the caped crusader's face melt out of the background. But this only presents him with another opportunity. "Why didn't you send a league search party out Aqualad? Why didn't Aquaman search?" Roy fires off questions to the head of the League, and even Nightwing takes a step back. "Aqualad was not league responsibility. A search party was sent out regardless, but failed to yield results. Aquaman was found unsuitable for the search, as were you, and were kept out of it for your own good."
Roy was close to bursting, but couldn't. Not in front of Batman, which he'd never get away with. So instead Red just sends a scathing glare to everyone in side, and turns to leave. That's when he hears Batman speak again. "Aqualad converted three months ago. You're too late to stop him, and I highly advise you not to try. Return to Star City, and forget about him."
The last three words are spoken with a heavy emphasis, and the clone merely pauses, turns his head to the side, tilts his head down a few centimetres in a form of a nod, and resumes walking. When the Zeta tubes take him back to Star City however, simply forgetting about the brave team leader who had been through so much just to keep his team together, suffering so much before finally succumbing to his own overpowering grief… Seems impossible.
So, uh, first fic upload in two years. Tell me what you think, and if I should continue or not?