Hey so here is chapter two and I can't believe I've updated within days of publishing. Anyway this chapter may get a bit confusing when you get to Dice's pov, but if you keep reading it'll clear right up. And for all of you who are wondering what happened to Charlie, you get a little snippet. So I don't own Young Justice and happy reading.


Washington D.C.

July 5, 00:01 EDT

KID FLASH

I groaned as I woke up. The last thing I remembered was fighting Sueperboy. He must have beat us good. I looked around. I was in a pod and so were the others. Superman's clone was staring at us.

"What? What do you want? Quit staring. You're creeping me out." I informed him.

"Uh, KF, how about we not tick off the guy who can fry us with a look?" Robin suggested.

I ignored him opting instead to ask Superboy why he attacked us, after all we were only trying to help. Aqualad suggested he may not have been in control of his actions. It was plausible since we knew at least one guy here was being brainwashed. But why hadn't Dice warned us like she attempted to do with Guardian.

"What if he- I wasn't?" Superboy asked surprising us all.

"He can talk?" I asked voicing the question no one else wanted to.

"Yes, he can." Superboy snapped.

"Not like I said it." I defended.

"The genomorphs taught you." Aqualad stated.

"They taught me much. I can read, write. I know the names of things." Superboy admitted.

"But have you seen them? Have they actually let you see the sky or the moon?" Robin stepped in.

"Images are implanted in my mind, but no. I have not seen them." Superboy admitted.

"Do you know what you are, who you are?" Aqualad questioned.

"I am the Superboy, a genomorph, a clone made from the DNA of the Superman, created to replace him should he perish, to destroy him should he turn from the light." Wow, OK, I hoped I wasn't the only one not expecting that.

"To be like Superman is a worthy aspiration but, like Superman, you deserve a life of your own beyond that solar suit, beyond your pod, beyond Cadmus." Aqualad was trying to sway Superboy to our side. However, Superboy's next statement made me think it wasn't working.

"I like because of Cadmus! It is my home!"

"Your home is a test tube. We can show you the sun." Robin said, once again adding his two cents.

"Uh pretty sure it's after midnight, but we can show you the moon." I corrected. Aqualad continued. Of course, then the lab coat dude just had to enter.

"No, they can't!" He declared. "They'll be otherwise occupied. Start the cloning process." Lab coat ordered.

"Pass. The Batcave's full already." Robin remarked. Lab coat ignored him turning to Guardian.

"And get the weapon back in its pod1" He shouted.

"Hey how come he gets to call Supey an it?"

DICE

"Alice!" My sister screamed as some behemoth threw her over his shoulder.

"Charlie!" Without thinking I started to run towards her, forgetting all about the fact I had powers. Someone fisted their hand in my short hair.

"It was a valiant effort Miss O'Malley I will admit that. However, an eight-year-old was never any match for us. Perhaps you'd like to refine your skills and try again in thirty years?" The owner of the hand sneered.

"What I'd like is my sister back." I growled clawing at the hand. I could feel my long nails digging in, breaking skin, and ultimately drawing blood.

I was thrown to one side of the alley, one of the few trash cans I hadn't blown up earlier broke my fall. "Put her in the van with the other one." Someone yelled. I was dazed when a shadow picked me up and dumped me into the van. I was hoping the other one that had been referred to would be Charlie, however it was not. It was a girl not much older than Charlie, perhaps five or six years old.

When I could finally see straight I was able to acknowledge the gold eyes that were set in the light blue face that loomed over me.

"Where's Charlie?" I demanded jack knifing into a sitting position.

The blue girl shook her head allowing me to see the red marks on both cheeks. They were almost like tiger stripes. "No one else was thrown in here with you." She told me trying to push light green hair out of her eyes.

We didn't speak for the rest of the trip. I was too busy wallowing in the guilt and the knowledge I had failed. My parents had made one last request of me before we had fled. Look after Charlie. I couldn't do it. I couldn't protect my baby sister. Not even with a pair of dice in my hands. Utterly useless. I was a failure.

After who knows how much time had passed the van stopped. Blue girl and I were yanked out and forced to walk, though mostly we stumbled, into what looked like a large storage unit. The inside however resembled the reptile house in the zoo mother had taken me and Charlie to what seemed like life times ago. It was separated into large squares made of glass walls so you could view the occupants trapped within from all sides. A few looked defiant as if they were still willing to fight should it come down to it. Most however looked broken. As if our captors had somehow reached into their bodies and ripped out their very souls.

I was shoved behind one glass wall, blue girl another across from my own. I don't know how long I was in there before she came. A few hours, a day, a week, perhaps months, time was nonexistent there in that prison.

But eventually she did come. "Are you ready to behave Alice?" She asked me as I traced the lines on her skin with my eyes. "If you are I could reunite you with Charlie." She continued. My eyes snapped to hers.

"Do you really have Charlie?" I demanded. My voice came out weaker than I intended it to, but that was the price for not talking for so long.

"Of course. She's such a wonderful girl. And she takes after her sister in the power department. Technokinesis." The woman said brightly. My anger flared up. How dare this woman talk about Charlie as if she knew her.

I let my feet touch the ground, having been holding myself up with telekinesis. "I want to see Charlie." I growled. There was no hesitation or weakness in my voice this time around.

The woman smirked. "I knew you would. However, there is a slight catch. If I get you out of here and take you to Charlie you have to train with me so you can return my large favor." She said. She was teasing me now.

"Well do hurry up. I'm waiting with bated breath." I snapped sarcastically.

"Destroy the boy wonder." She finished.

"Do you want his head on a silver platter or gold?" I asked. The woman's peals of laughter echoed between cages.

"I knew there was a reason I wanted you." And with that I was allowed to leave my glass cell behind.

And yet now I once again found myself caught behind a glass panel much like a dead butterfly in a bug collector's set. I wanted to pound my fists against the glass and scream. But my hands were shackled beside my head and my voice was gone, thrown back to the time I spent with others who had lost their will.

I was back to being an eight-year-old screw up without dice, without her little sister, and without a prayer.

Rods came out of nowhere and attached to my body before electrocuting me, I didn't make a peep. I'd been conditioned not to. I just closed myself off mentally and let my mind slip from my body.

ROBIN

We were all free from the pods. "What about the girl?" Except for Dice.

"I got her." Kid said quickly destroying the outside of the pod. Something was wrong with Dice though.

"I don't think anybody's home." Kid Flash announced as he brought her to us. Dice looked up, almost to the point I could see pink eyes reflected in the overhead lights from beneath her hood. She dropped her dice to the floor and lunged at me. I evaded to one side. The dice hit the floor and finally decided what numbers they would be. One was a six the other was a three. Dice's hands began to glow. And now I was dodging balls of light. How was she able to do that?

"Dice stop." Aqualad commanded grabbing Dice's shoulder. For a second it looked as though she would attack Aqualad, but then the tension bled from her.

"I'm sorry Aqualad. I was somewhere else." Dice admitted though she didn't turn to apologize to me. Then again, we didn't have time. The five of us ran out of the room, once again being pursued by genomorphs. Dice stopped and turned to face the creatures.

"What are you doing?" Kid demanded.

"Putting some distance between us and them." Dice replied as she was enveloped in light. She blinded the ones behind us.

"How did you do that?" Superboy demanded.

"Number nine, photokinesis." Dice answered.

"Number nine?" Kid shouted.

"It would take too long to explain." Dice hissed. For the first time since I met her there was fear in her voice. I didn't think it was from our current predicament, but instead from some dark memory haunting her.

Superboy was giving directions which put us at a dead end. Or so we thought until I noticed the air vent. Dice must have noticed it too. The cover flew off as though it had been blown off by an explosion. Kid turned to say something to her.

"We don't have time." She snapped. We crawled through the ventilation shaft, even as genomorphs followed until we got to a place I could hack everything. Once that was done KF ran off zooming through the stairwells to sublevel one. We followed behind him. Dice and Superboy bringing up the rear. The genomorphs almost caught up with us so Superboy destroyed the staircase behind him, sending the genomorphs falling. Dice fell with them.

"Next time I'll cover the rear." Dice growled as she flew up revealing herself to be unharmed. We were almost out. Kid Flash ran into a door.

"We're cut off from the street." Aqualad exclaimed.

"Thanks, my head hadn't noticed." Kid grumbled. We were about to turn back when we were surrounded by genomorphs.

DICE

I groaned as I stood. Nothing like a building falling on you to get the blood flowing. "Are you guys alright?" I asked the others. They had a few scraps and their costumes were trashed, but otherwise they appeared to be fine.

"See the moon." Kid Flash said pointing it out to Superboy. I had to admit it was a pretty moon almost full. Of course, that was all ruined by the arrival of Superman and the rest of the leaguers. "And Superman. Do we keep our promises or what?" He seemed very proud of that fact.

"You guys are in so much trouble." I stated.

"Is that what I think it is?" Batman asked looking at Superboy. I wanted to hit Batman I really did.

"He doesn't like being called an 'it'." Kid Flash said in a stage whisper.

"I'm Superman's clone." Superboy said.

"Start talking." And now I wanted to strangle Batman, but no I was supposed to hurt him another way. But the boys explained anyway. I kept my trap shut. Then the adults broke into little groups.

"And so, after finding a moody teenager, getting knocked out at least twice, fighting a giant guinea pig and evil scientist, and almost getting crushed by a building the grown-ups contemplate how long they're going to ground you for." I said flipping my hood down for the first time in over twelve hours. The wind chilled my sweat soaked hair. Ugh, why did they have to make me run so much. It'd been like a rat maze in there.

"Wait why wouldn't they ground you too? You decided to come with us." Kid Flash spoke up.

"Well yes I suppose that's true, however I've got no ties to them." I said pulling my legs up so I was sitting on air. Or more I used telekinesis to hold me up. I usually did it to strengthen my mind, but it had become more of a habit.

"And yet you stayed." Aqualad pointed out. It surprised me as well. I could have left at any time during this fiasco and even when the adults showed up I could have quietly slipped away. Heck I could have left and let the genomorphs complete my mission for me, but for some reason I found that a lot easier said than done.

I looked away for a moment before turning to the boys. "I said no ties to them. It seems today we have been bound by our experiences." I said simply. It was the only answer I had. The only thing that came to me. Honestly it reminded me of my time in the van with the little green haired girl.

Superman walked up to Superboy drawing my attention.

Gotham City

July 5, 02:33 EST

"Uh, do you want us to drop you off at your house or something? You know make sure Poison Ivy isn't going to attack you again." Robin asked.

"Nah. I'm good. I don't live too far from here." I answered fighting off a yawn. It didn't help the look Batman was giving me gave me the creeps. He didn't trust me now that he knew I had powers and hadn't said anything. That much was obvious. "So, I guess I'll see you around Robin." I told the boy wonder awkwardly before turning and walking towards the apartment I shared with Charlie and Auntie Pamela.

When I got there Charlie was still up and watching TV. I walked over to her and kissed the crown of her head which was covered with dyed blue hair.

"You're in big trouble Alice." Charlie said not looking away from the TV. "You're way past your curfew." She continued. I rolled my eyes.

"Says the nine-year-old who's up way past her bedtime." I retorted.