Listen

Damn it, Roy, just talk to me!" I screamed as I followed the redhead. For months now he had been avoiding me; but now I had him trapped in his own apartment.

"Go home Sara," he told me, his voice gruff and tired sounding.

"No," I protested, "Not until you tell me what's going on!" We went into the living room, for what felt like the seventh time that day. "You've been avoiding me or months, no phone calls, not texts, not even a single message to tell me if you'll be out late." I grabbed onto his arm to stop him, "Damn it, I'm worried." He went to pull his arm away but my grip only tightened, "Roy Harper, are you even listening to me?"

There was a pause. Roy had his face away from me, hiding his expression, but when he finally turned to me, I saw the amount of damage. It was sunken in like he hadn't eaten in weeks, dark bags under his from most likely not sleeping, chin unshaved and showing in increasing amount of red stubble. Roy was still in his uniform, the only things missing were his mask, bow and quiver. It was the middle of the fucking day, he shouldn't even be in uniform till at least six.

"Darling, please, talk to me," I begged, my voice no longer sounding mad and angry, but worried. It was then that he finally looked at me. His eyes, dark blue with flecks of green around the pupil, were darker and held less emotion than ever before.

"I'm not him…" was all he said.

"You're not who?" I asked confused.

"I'm not Roy… at least not the one you think I am." He turned away again, "I'm not the real Roy Harper. I'm a clone."

This had me shocked, blinking at the man in front of me. The news left me shaken, but only for a moment as I realized how I felt the first time I was told the same news. "Roy…"

"Stop!" he shouted, yanking his hand out of my own. "Stop calling me that. I'm not him, alright! I'm not 'Roy', I never was. Don't you get that?"

"I do…" I said, my voice calm now, soothing almost. He looked at me, seeming shocked. "Darling, sit down." I pulled him to the couch, making him sit down. I then knelt on the floor in front of him. "It's time I told you something…" I began, looking straight at him.

He sat there, hands under mine on his knees. His eyed were filled with confusion, hurt and even distrust at the moment, and I felt that I might just make it worse with what I was about to tell him. But it was the only way I could make him see the truth in this.

"You're not alone here, Roy." I started. When he opened his mouth to respond, I just kept going. "I know what it's like… to find out that you're not who you thought you were." I dropped to the floor completely then, my hands going to my lap. "You know how my father's a scientist, right?" he nodded.

"He used to work for this organization called Cadmus." Roy stiffened at the name. "When I was younger, or… the original me was younger, she got sick. Really sick. She died of leukemia at age three. Dad was devastated. That's when Cadmus offered him a job. You see, he was studying the cloning process then, and they wanted him so they could actually perfect it. And when they did, he offered them my original's DNA in hopes he could get his little girl back." I took a breath and looked down at my hands, opening them up to myself.

"What he didn't know was that they weren't just cloning people. They were… tampering with their DNA, mixing them with other kinds, animal being the main part." I looked back up into my boyfriend's eyes. They held more pain, more confusion than before; but beyond that I could see the disbelief. Whose wouldn't after hearing all this? With another breath I continued the story. "The combined her DNA with a bunch of different animals, forced different adaptations on the infants so they could… study them," I hissed. "In the beginning there were seven of us, but after a while our group began to dwindle in numbers.

"Five year Dad watched this, saw his daughter, or daughters however you want to put it, die one after the other because off all the experiments. Finally, he just had enough. He grabbed the last child, the smallest and frailest of the group, and told the doctors she had died in her sleep. They bought it, surprisingly.

"She wasn't dead though. Dad took her home, raised her, taught her things that Cadmus had neglected her for so long, and showed her that that the world wasn't just a bunch of needles and charts and test tubes." I looked down unable to hold his gaze anymore as it grew more and more hurt by the second. "That last girl… she was me." My voice shuddered slightly. "I had no clue, my mind had filtered it out, repressed all of it after a while, and I thought I really was Sara Kenyon. Dad told me the truth though, on her eighteenth birthday, which was really my tenth. That day he gave me this," I held up my left wrist, showing Roy the old, banged up watch that I never, never, took off, "It's a hologram projector, to cover up my… differences." The same hand fell back to its original place in my lap. "After that, I didn't trust anyone. I was scared that I'd get taken back, put back in that damn dog crate…" my whole bod shook at the memory, "When he told me it all came back, the pain, the tests, all of it.

"Soon enough, I became angry, angry at Dad for lying to me for so long, angry at them for creating me, angry at myself…"

I wiped away the tears threatening to fall from my eyes. "Really I was just angry at everything. Mostly I was angry at myself." Roy shifted above me, as if he was going to do something, console me, maybe? "I was angry because I thought I stole her life, not just that but her family, her home, her… everything. But most of all, I was angry at the fact of what I was, not who I was.

"That's when I ran, and came here to Star City because it would have been the last place anyone would look seeing as there's like seven Cadmus's here. I started over, still using her name, but technically it was mine too. I call Michael from time to time, as you know. But even with that, leaving that life, I still… I still think…" I sighed and stopped that thought, knowing I wouldn't be able to finish it. "Even though I'm not the original Sara Kenyon, I'm still me. We just have the same name is all. I'm not a clone, I'm my own person." Looking up I saw that Roy was till listening, the same look in his eyes. "It's the same with you. And don't tell me it isn't because I can see it. The pain in your eyes, the guilt, the confusion. I saw that same look in my eyes for years before I just finally let it go."

"Sara… don't."

"No, just listen, Roy!" I shouted, really wanting him to get this, before it hurt him. "Whoever the original Ro Harper was, you're not him. You're right, you're not. But you are Roy Harper. Just because you're not him doesn't mean you have to beat yourself up because of it."

There, it was all out. The apartment went silent after that as we looked at each other. I was trying to see what he was thinking, but his face sunk even further, disappearing under a mask of unsaid emotions. But really, that mask said it all to me.

"I… I understand…" I started, looking away from him and at the door, "if you don't want me around, that is. Trust me, if I were you I wouldn't either. But, Roy, please, please I beg you, don't destroy yourself because of this. It's not your fault, whatever they did, whatever happened, it's their fault, not yours."

And with that I stood up, keeping my eyes on anything but the man in front of me. "Think about what I said, alright?" Then I turned and walked towards the front door.

"Hold up!" I felt a hand wrap around my right wrist, forcing me to stand still in the middle of Roy's rundown apartment. He turned me around, making me face him. "After all that you're just going to leave?"

"I thought-."

"You thought wrong." Roy corrected, "You can't just leave after all that. Not without at least answering some questions."

I nodded, agreeing with him. "What do you want to know?"

He scoffed, shaking his head, "Really, I don't know where to start," he admitted. "First off, you're serious right now? All these years, you never, not once, thought to tell me this sooner, like on the first date or anything?"

"Roy, believe me, I wanted to tell you, but-."

"But what?" he shouted.

"I thought you'd leave!" I shouted back, my own anger rising up. "For months I've wanted to tell, years, ever since we really got to know one another! I've always wanted to tell you." That's when I fully faced him, "Damn it, do you think I like having this hanging over my head? Every second of every day? I don't Roy, damn it to hell, I don't." My body began shaking, so many things going through me, even then after years of dealing with my own faults it still hit pretty hard when you got right down to it.

"Alright, alright…" Roy said, his voice no longer holding anger or malice when in actuality it held concern and guilt. "Then answer me this. Was any of this, you and me, us, was any of this real?"

I gapped at him, mouth hanging open and everything. "All of it Roy, ever bit of it." I answered without a second thought. "Every minute, every second, every little moment was real."

He nodded, turning away one more time, thought swimming through his eyes. "Sorry… I just."

"It's a lot to take in…" I said, knowing full well what was going through him at that moment. "It was for me too."

He nodded, running a hand over his face before coming back to me, looking me straight in the eyes. "I just have one more question, and that's it."

I nodded, "Go ahead."

He took a moment, looking me up and down like he was seeing me for the first time. "What do you really look like?"

I blinked, not sure even how to begin with that answer. It was unexpected, at least from my point of view. I did tell him about the watch though, so it did make sense I guess. I looked down, slightly ashamed to tell the truth. "It's not going to be pretty." I warned.

"Do I look like I care?" I looked up once last time, taking in his face before it turned on me, before the love that I saw in it faded away to disgust.

"Just… Don't… scream, okay?" I begged, stepped away from him. Our hands held between us till I was too far to hold on any longer. His touch leaving left me cold, alone. With a sigh the same hand he had held went to my watch, removing it from my wrist. The skin under it was rubbed raw and smelt slightly of rubber and leather. Once it was completely off a tingling sensation went over my body.

The image fell away, revealing the true me underneath. I could already tell exactly what he saw first without even having to look up. My skin would turn from the dark Indian tan my original was born with to a strange and dark grey. My hair, that was mostly black, would change in two spots –one in my bangs, and the other on my nap- would change to a stark silver. My eyes, the irises would remain a brilliant dark green, but the whites would change to swirls of grey and black against a whit backdrop.

When I looked up to see his reaction, Roy's face remained unchanged. In the few seconds it took for my whole body to change, he didn't even seemed bothered by it. He just stood there, looking at only my eyes, nothing else.

"Roy?" I asked, my voice shaking. The way he was looking at me made me extremely nervous.

Again, nothing, not even a peep. Then, after what seemed like hours, he spoke. "Is that it?" he asked, making me jump at how loud it seemed.

I looked at him uncertainly, shaking my head. "Are you sure want to-?"

"Of course I am." He said, cutting me off. I just nodded again. That's when I took off my jacket, a large brown trench coat that Roy had never seen me without –not without a lack of trying on his part. That left me in my white tank top and a pair of old ripped and baggy jeans. I threw it over the back of the couch before turning my back to Roy. On my back were the last two part –three if you count differently- of my differences. On my back were a pair of large, black bat-like wings. They were the same in both shape and form, but came off my back much like a bird's. At the base of my back was a long tail that I kept wrapped around my waist like a belt. I let it relax and fall loosely around my legs. All in all it was about as long as I was tall; same with each of my wings.

"They mixed my DNA with that of a bat and a lion." I stated, knowing that the wings and tail would look weird together. The tail ended in a tuft of fur, much like a lion's, and my wings had small tufts of black and silver fur on their shoulders.

There was yet another silence between us, making me all the more uncomfortable with the situation. Roy was the first person, beside Michael, my dad, that I had shown my wings to.

"R-Roy?" I called, my voice betraying me. When I turned to look at him over my shoulder he was suddenly behind me, his arms wrapping around my torso just as quickly. "Roy! What are you-?"

He shushed me, leaning his head against my shoulder. "Be quiet…" he told me, and for some reason I listened. He was gentle, arms clinging loosely to me but still strongly. Me, I just stood there stiff, not quite sure how to take his actions. "Now it's your turn to listen," he said, his voice slightly muffle in my shoulder.

I nodded, not moving any more than that. "You say you understand, but… for some strange, god-awful reason… I believe you." he laughed slightly, "It all makes sense now; all those stupid habits of yours. Never getting to close to me, the weirdly adorable way you snore that sounds like your purring, how you always wear that god-damned trench coat –even in hundred degree weather without breaking a sweat." He laughed again, this time making me laugh some as well. "And most of all… the way you talk about yourself. The stupid way you're always saying you're not as good as you are, how beautiful you are… How you're not good enough."

"Roy…"

"Let me finish… It makes sense, so I believe you. Damn it, I'm not even mad that you technically lied to me about this. So I'm not mad… I'm upset but I'm not mad. And no, I don't want you to leave. Hell, I'd probably die without you around to make me eat once in a great while and making me sleep when I'm about to drop from exhaustion." There was a pause, no laughter this time. Roy's arms did tighten though, as if he didn't want me to leave even after he said so. "But… I'm still not him, Sara. The Roy Harper you know, the memories you've been told about him, they're not mine, none of them are mine. They're his. I've only been here three years. Three years, and I didn't even know I was a clone."

"I've only known you two years, Roy." I stated, turning around in his arms, circling my arms around his back. "Meaning that this man, the one holding me in his arms right, the one that I'm talking to, is the Roy I know. You're the one I fell in love with, not him." I looked up, using one of my hands to make him look at me. "You're the man I fell in love with. I leaned against him, my head resting just on his chest. Curse his tallness later, it was perfect then. "With these arms, the arms that have held me for two whole years of your crazy life. Not the memories you have of them. This heart, the one that I'm listening to right now, I listen to it every night and it say it loves me, and mine says it back."

I looked back up at him, both my hands coming up to cup his face. "And this face, these lips, have kissed me every morning we've woken up together, have whispered sweet little nothings to me when I needed them the most, and have told me such beautiful things over the years that would make any girl's heart melt." I leaned up and kissed him, proving my point. The moment he kissed back there was passion, love, and maybe a hint of lust under it all. Before it could go too deep I pulled back, lacing one hand in his short hair –which needed a good wash by the way- and the other dropped to his arm. "This man, right here, is the one I fell for. Not he memories he carries, not the amazing good looks he has. No, I fell for the man he is. And that, Roy, is something they can't clone, that they can't copy. That's you in there, the man I fell in love with. Not the original, not the first, but this one.

He leaned his forehead against mine with a sigh. "You make a good listener." He laughed, making me do the same.

"Even though I'm the one who did all the talking." I added.

"Yeah, even though you did all the talking."

Fin