Yay, new chapter! We're at chapter 4 now and I really hope I can get the mission fully done in this one. If it isn't as long as the others, I'll most likely be making another part.

So last we left off the group of young heroes took on the Cadmus mission and what they found was far more than what they had expected. Will they survive? What kind of torture are some in for? How will things change with another member of this team in the fray?

Looks like you'll have to read to find out. XD

Like previously mentioned, I do not own any of the Young Justice characters, episode dialogue, or lore information. That's all on DC Comics.

'Time runs short. You must awaken. You must awaken NOW!'

Gasping for breath as if just emerging from under water, Winter did her best to open her eyes, but felt a heavy sting of pain on the left hand side of her face, more noticeably her eye socket. Letting her vision slowly but surely clear up, Winter frowned when she noticed that only the right hand side of her vision had gone back to normal, albeit a bit blurry.

Was her eye covered? Had she damaged it somehow? Why couldn't she remember?

'W-What happened?' The ice user thought, her head feeling like it had collided with a solid wall. It was only when she started to try and move her arms and legs that she realized the situation she was in. Though she couldn't exactly see the left hand side of anything, the ice user frowned when she looked to the right and noticed what appeared to be metal shackles wrapped around her wrists. Looking down to check her legs and saw the same shackles wrapped around her ankles, the hero gasped when she noticed a pair of blue eyes staring right at her from outside her new prison.

Standing straight, quiet, and unfazed by the situation she was in was Superboy. Stoic and not giving any sign of surprise at her awakening, the clone simply watched her.

'W-What is he looking at?' Winter thought, feeling a little uncomfortable at the boys' staring. Feeling anger well up inside her at her situation, the ice user squirmed in her shackles, feeling the metal confines irritating her wrists and ankles.

"W-Where am I?! Where are my friends!? What happened to my eye!?" Winter yelled at Superboy, trying to get some form of answers.

However no answer came, but Winter could see the clone squint in confusion at her actions and yelling.

'Why won't he stop looking at me?! It's...weird.' Winter thought, her face feeling a bit warm when she noticed the boy continuing to just stare up at her. She knew this wasn't the time to be getting flustered, but when you had a guy (who was pretty cute to be honest) staring at you for so long, you just couldn't help yourself.

Gritting her teeth and continuing her efforts to escape, the teen ignored the warm feeling in her cheeks and yelled in anger. "Say something! You can talk can't you!?"

Looking downwards to the ground, as if trying to find the words, Superboy turned his gaze back upward to glare at Winter. " Yes. He can."

A bit taken aback by an actual answer from the super clone, Winter stopped her squirming and frowned. "Well answer my questions then. Where are my friends? Why am I trapped in this thing? And why can't I see through my left eye!?" The teen called out, demanding answers.

Aggravation laced in the prisoners' voice, Superboy only continued to stare at Winter as he spoke, glare never leaving his face. "The other prisoners are contained just like you in another room. You were put in there because you broke into Cadmus and they wanted you contained. Your left eye is covered by bandages. You injured it yourself in the battle with me and one of the scientists wrapped took care of it."

"A battle? What are you-Ugh!" Feeling the familiar pain course through her head, Winter tightened her hands into fists to try and work through the discomfort coursing in her skull. Feeling the pain slowly die down, the heroine slowly but surely felt memories from minutes prior begin to surface.

-Memories Begin-

Superboy had been freed from his pod, but the welcome they got from his was the exact opposite of what the group had thought.

Swiftly and exhibiting powers similar to Superman the clone began taking the group down one at a time. Crushing Robin underneath his foot, slamming Aqualad into the ceiling, and throwing Kid Flash through glass from just a single punch. They had done the best they could, but it felt like they were fighting a living tank.

Soon enough she had been the last one standing, but her ice wasn't doing much to slow Superboy down or weaken him in any way. She felt embarrassed, her mind remembering the moment she had screwed up her eye. She had created an ice wall to try and block a punch from the clone, but not able to create it as powerful as she had wanted, Superboy had easily punched straight through her defenses. As a result countless shards of sharpened ice flew across the room.

And unable to guard herself fast enough, a shard of sharpened ice cut straight down her eye socket, injuring and causing blood to seep out.

-Memories End-

She winced absentmindedly, the memory of the pain reemerging and replicating itself. 'I remember now. How Superboy took us all down and how I injured my eye. Father is not going to happy about this.'

Was that everything she could remember? No, it couldn't be. She felt like there was more she was missing.

'But...why don't I remember anything about Superboy knocking me out too. Was it one of those Genomorph things?' Winter thought, shaking her head to remove the lingering pain in her head.

"Okay, I remember it now. We fought, but why? Didn't you want to get out of there? Go outside?" Winter asked, her eye narrowing in confusion at the result of the groups decision.

"The Genomorphs teach me about the things outside." Superboy replied back, no enthusiasm or energy in his voice. It was as if he was reciting everything like a robot.

"Those...weird creatures?" Winter asked aloud, her mind envisioning the tiny creatures that had been in Superboy's pod. Shaking her head, Winter frowned at Superboy "That isn't the same as seeing everything with your own eyes. Have they even let you out? Let you see the ocean? The sky? Or even the sun?" Winter asked back.

His gaze still on her, Superboy spoke. "Images are implanted in my mind." His gaze faltering lightly and looking off to the side for a split second, the cloned Kryptonian looked back to Winter. "But...no. I have not seen them."

Eyes widening at the answer Superboy gave her, Winter couldn't help but look to the boy in pity. His existence...It was worse than she thought. No matter how bad the expectations her father put on her, despite the orders she was given by him, and even the the situations she was forced to partake in, even she had at least some control of her life.

She got to see the sun, moon, and sky.

She was able to smell a flower and talk with others as she pleased.

And for whatever it was worth, she could even be a hero and help people in need.

But Superboy had none of that. All their conversation so far had gone back and forth against one another, and so far only proved to the ice heroine that the clones' life was far worse than what she had to endure.

Feeling her previous energy she had begin to dwindle away, Winter decided to ask another question. "Do...you even know what you are? Who you're supposed to be?"

Eyes hardening at the question, Superboy straightened his posture and spoke. "I am the Superboy. A Genomorph. A clone created from the DNA of the Superman. Created to replace him should he perish. To destroy him if he turns from the light."

'What is Cadmus trying to do using him?!' Winter wondered in fear, listening to Superboy's answer with renewed vigor. 'The conviction he has in his voice. That look. It reminds me of myself when I begged to be a super hero to Ice Maiden.'

"Superboy, I know how it feels to have a goal. I do, really." Winter replied, speaking truthfully to the bottom of her heart. "Wanting to be someone like Superman is a wonderful goal, but you deserve to have a life and make choices just like him. Beyond all of this mess Cadmus is trying to put you through."

"I live because of Cadmus!" Superboy yelled back, a glare showing on his face. "It's my home!"

Feeling her body tense up a bit from the super powered clones' yelling, Winter took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. "I get that. I know you don't want to betray the people who have taken care of you, helped you, taught you everything you know. Trust me, I know just how you feel. But this isn't any way to live, to be cooped up down here and not be given any freedom."

Once again trying to pull her wrists out form the confines of her prison, Winter groaned in pain and looked to Superboy. "If...If you can get my friends and I out of here, we could take you outside. You can see flowers, trees, the sky. We could introduce you to Superman."

Eyes widening at the proposition, Superboy looked at the confined heroine with curiosity. "You can?"

"No, they can't."

Doors opened and walking inside along with Guardian and three Genomorph G-Gnomes on their shoulders, Dr. Desmond walked to stand nearby Superboy and stare up at the ice heroine. "Your friends are a little preoccupied at the moment, and soon enough you'll be too."

Glaring at the new face she didn't recognize, Winter squirmed in her shackles in an attempt to break free. "Where did do to my friends?! Let us go!"

"I don't think so. You see you've all seen too much of our facility that most are not supposed to. Given the severity of the situation, my bosses have asked to make a new project out of some of your friends. I'm sure they will make wonderful clones like this weapon here." Dr. Desmond said, his gaze turning to Superboy who watched the two talk.

"I'd like to see you try to make a clone out of me. Nothing can beat the original. Not even another me." Winter replied back with confidence.

"I won't be cloning you. One of my bosses said they want you untouched and alive, so for now you'll be sitting here nice and cozy until then. But just to be sure you don't try to think up some plan to escape..." Dr. Desmond spoke, motioning for one of the small G-Gnome to jump off his shoulder.

Landing on the floor of the lab and running over to climb up onto a table nearby Winter's pod, the Genomorph looked to the heroine for a few seconds before the familiar blood red glow appeared on its horns, indicating the creature was using it powers.

Looking at the creature with hesitant fear, Winter gasped in pain as she felt what was like claws digging deep into her head. Everything inside her head hurt and her thoughts were starting to get fuzzy. Every second she tried to think of some way to get out of this torture, the Genomorph retaliated back with its mental attacks, making the ice user grit her teeth in aggravation. As much as she wanted to keep her voice silent to not yell in painful mental torture she was enduring, it was too much for the girl to bare.

"Ahh! S-Stop it! Please! It hurts!" Winter screamed, sweat running down the side of her head as she frantically tried to get out of her shackles, desperate to stop the pain that was ringing itself in her mind.

Smiling at the girls' distraction, Dr. Desmond looked over to Guardian and motioned him to go to Superboy. "Now get the weapon back into its pod!"

Superboy had never been in a situation like this. It was the longest he'd ever been outside his pod, perhaps even the first time he's ever been let out. Even more so the information he was learning, the places he was seeing so far, and the people he talked to were unlike anything he could understand. However it was the words of the sidekick Winter that stuck inside his head.

'I can make my own choices?' The inner voice of Superboy asked, the cloned experiment looking upwards to watch as Winter was being forced through what looked like mental torture. Something was starting to boil inside him when he saw that. He couldn't place it, but it was as if heat was building up inside him, wanting to release itself to stop what he was watching.

Still lost in his thoughts and watching the torture that was going on in front of him, Superboy felt the gauntleted hand of Guardian grab his shoulder. Eyes narrowing at the contact, Superboy growled lowly and pushed his shoulder out of Guardian's grip, staring the hero down.

'He's starting to rebel.' Dr. Desmond thought, his gaze on the weapon defying Guardians' orders. "Don't start thinking now." He ordered, motioning for the second Genomorph G-Gnome to use its powers.

Jumping off the scientists' shoulder and landing on Superboys', the Genomorph sat patiently in silence until yet again the powers of it began to activate.

Superboy remembered the feeling of the Genomorph G-Gnome well. Being used to having them go into his mind to feed him information about the world and knowledge. His thoughts still trying to be his own, the mental wave from the Genomorph began to wash over everything he had been thinking on his own. His mind slowing down and feeling like it was becoming emptier and emptier with each passing second, the boy finally lost the last bit of free will he had, his eyes losing any sort of semblance of life or emotion as he stared blankly in front of him, his mind once again open to suggestions.

Walking around to look at the boy face to face, Dr. Desmond glared. "You see, you aren't a real boy. You're just a weapon and you belong to me!" Realizing what he had said, Dr. Desmond frowned a bit, shifting his gaze to the side before turning it back on Superboy. "Well...to Cadmus. Same thing. Now get back to your pod!" He ordered.

Giving no signs of the defiant energy he once had, Superboy gave no nod of approval nor any sign that he was against the orders. Turning around towards the exit, the mind controlled weaponized boy walked out of the laboratory and headed to the destination he had been ordered to go to.

Ignoring everything around him and focusing on the objective Dr. Desmond gave him, Superboy gave no indication of hearing or noticing anything around him. Experimental equipment, computer monitors, even other Genomorphs like him. None of it seemed to matter as he continued on his way to his "home".

That was until he heard something.

It was faint, muffled at first from the mental control the G-Gnome on his shoulder, but with the help of his super hearing the clone was able to work through it and understand the message being called out to him.

"Superboy, you're alive." The voice of Winter spoke, Superboy squinting his eyes ever so slightly as he heard her voice echo through his ears.

"Please don't force yourself to go back to Cadmus like this. You have the right to choose. If you want to really be like Superman, make your own choices."Winter begged, her voice faltering from the mental torture Superboy had witnessed earlier.

Listening to each word she spoke, Superboy slowed down his walking speed until finally stopping in place. Glaring down in frustration, he shook his head to fight back against the mental manipulation the G-Gnome was having over him.

The voice of Winter getting louder as he continued to fight, Superboy could her the tired breathing and struggling of the heroine despite their space apart from them. "You can fight thi-Ahhhhhhhh!" Trying to convey a last message, Winter cut herself short when she screamed, her voice soon after disappearing.

"Get off me!" Superboy yelled, swatting the G-Gnome off of his shoulder to break free of its control. Feeling like a weight within his mind was being lifted from his shoulders, Superboy shook his head to regain function of himself before turning back around and running back to the laboratory the ice user was kept in.

Reaching the locked door and pulling them apart with his full strength, the super powered teen shifted his gaze left to right, looking at Dr. Desmond and Guardian who turned to look at the boy in shock.

"I told you to get back to your-ugh!" Watching Dr. Desmond and Guardian try to order him again and run towards him to try and capture him, Superboy simply pushed his hands outwards, forcefully propelling the two Cadmus employees away from him and watching them skid a few feet away in random directions.

Making sure that neither of them were going to get back up, Superboy turned his gaze to Winter who was still writhing in pain at the torture from the G-Gnome nearby. Glaring at the creature and walking towards it, Superboy only stared at the creature, his eyes burning with anger.

"Leave now. Or you're going to be thrown through a wall." Superboy commanded, anger laced in his voice and words.

Staring up to the Superboy in curiosity, the G-Gnome blinked its eyes at him before canceling its power and jumping off the table to run off out of the lab.

Seeing it run away, Superboy turned back to the pod Winter was in. Looking for the switch to get her out, Superboy found a lone console and punched his fist through it, electricity sparking and wires falling out along with dented metal.

A hissing noise coming from behind him, Superboy rushed over when he saw the glass shielding of the pod open itself, the restraint locks unhooking themselves as well. Unconscious and unable to slow her descent to the ground, Superboy ran towards the falling heroine and effortlessly caught her in his arms.

"Hey. You okay?" Superboy asked, uncertainty in his voice as he tried to shake the unconscious girl in his arms.

"Ugh." The weak voice of Winter muttered, a look of pain written on her face. Her mind slowly regaining control over itself and working to ignore the lingering pain, the ice heroine slowly opened her good eye, her vision once again tonight trying to clear up.

'The pain's gone? And I feel warm.' Winter thought tiredly, blinking ever few times to try and discern what was happening. Her vision finally clearing itself up, although still unable to see through her left eye, Winters' eye widened when she noticed the face of Superboy looking down at her. 'He must have saved me.'

Looking up at Superboy, the heroine gave a tired smile. "You came back. I guess you heard me."

"It wasn't hard. You're kind of loud." Superboy said bluntly, his blue eyes staring back at her own icy blue.

Feeling a chuckle come out of her mouth, Winter couldn't help but smile at the comment as she motioned herself to remove herself out of Superboys' arms. A bit wobbly at first, Winter wiped a drop of sweat from her brow and looked around the damaged room, trying to get her bearings. "You don't know how to talk to girls do you?"

"Why should I?" The clone asked back, eyebrow raised in a questioning position at his new ally's comment.

Shaking her head, Winter motioned for Superboy to follow her. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Right now we need to find my friends and get out of here."

Taking off alongside Superboy, Winter rushed down the hallway they were trapped in, trying to find some sort of clue to where Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin were.

'They have to be on this floor. They wouldn't do experiments on us on completely separate floors. They'd want to keep us together.' Winter thought, passing by another group of barrels in the hall. "Do you know where my friends were put Superboy?"

"Down the hall. It's the door on the right." He replied, racing against time to find his new allies.

Finally spotting the door Superboy had to be talking about, Winter slowed down her running and came to a stop at familiar looking metal doors. "Dammit! They locked this one too!"

"I'll get it open." Superboy spoke with confidence, walking over to the large metal doors in his way. Cracking his knuckles and slamming his hands right into the door like it was paper, Superboy clutched onto the metal and effortlessly ripped them off its hinges. Carrying the door over his head and throwing it to the side.

Taking off into the room while Superboy was discarding the door, the ice heroine gasped in surprise when she saw her team mates. Trapped in pods just like she had been, strange mechanical-like machines had injected themselves into all of their chests, sparking with high voltage electric shocks. However underneath each pod seemed to be a weird looking sphere, water and what appeared to be blood circling inside.

"Don't worry! I'll get you guys out of there!" Focusing her powers and flicking her wrists upward, four thin yet sturdy looking needles made of pure ice appeared in between her fingertips. Rushing towards the console nearby, Winter threw them at the controls, watching them fly through the air and lodge themselves into the controls.

The ice slowly melting from the heat of the broken controls, the water fell onto countless wires before finally short circuiting the entire thing and watching it explode.

The machines lodged within them losing power and shutting themselves down from the broken controls, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash groaned, relief washing over them as the pain finally subsided.

"Are you guys okay?!" Winter asked frantically, trying to look over her friends who looked like they had gone through Hell.

Robin, the first who looked to have regained his energy back, quickly moved his wrist around in his cuffs. With lock pick in hand and watching the locks finally let go of him, the boy wonder landed on the ground feet first. Rubbing his burning wrists, Robin looked up and smiled at the sight of Winter. "We're as okay as we can get. We're just glad to see you."

Lightly touching the bandage covering her eye, Winter shook her head and used an icicle to vault her up to Aqualad's pod. "Me too, though I'd rather have the sidekick reunion after we got out of here. This place is crazy."

Cuffs being unlocked from Aqualads' wrists and jumping down to the ground along with Kid Flash, the sidekicks got together and looked at one another with determined gazes.

"Anybody got any ideas to get out of here without getting spotted?" Kid Flash asked, rubbing his sore neck.

"Cadmus has most likely warned all of their Genome experiments to stop us. We'll need a fast route out. The express elevator is our best hope." Aqualad explained matter of factly.

Pulling up a hologram of the map he had downloaded earlier, Robin hastily looked through the blueprints to find the quickest escape. "The map only shows the upper ground levels. We'll just have to push our way through whatever comes at us to get to the elevator."

"That's already hard enough with most of us getting the crud beaten out of us. We'd need Superman with us to fight some of those big monsters." Kid Flash said, wincing from a sting a pain in his chest.

"Well it's a good thing I'm here." Superboy said, walking into the room and towards the sidekicks.

The three boys eyes widening in shock, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Robin readied themselves for a fight. Water bearers pulled out, goggles on, and batarangs ready, the teens were just about to make the first strike...

"Wow wow wow! Don't attack!" Winter exclaimed, seeing the hardened looks on her friends faces a she ran in front of Superboy to shield him. " We talked while I was captured. He rescued me. He's on our side now."

"Our side?! He beat us all up right after we let him out!" Kid Flash yelled, his eyes glaring at the Superboy before shifting to Winter who was shielding him. Now that he had gotten a better look at her, the speedster noticed what appeared to be a large bandage wrap covering her left eye socket. That hadn't been there before! "Hey! Did you hurt her!?" The speedster yelled.

Growling at Kid Flash from behind Winter, the living weapon clenched his hands into fists. "You better stop yelling at me."

Eyes narrowed on the supposed ally and shifting to Winter who was looking to the group with pleading eyes, Aqualad lowered his weapons and soon enough placed them back on his back. "Let's listen to what he has to say. While the battle did end quickly, I am certain our friend here was not in control of his actions when we encountered him out of his pod. If Winter says he is with us, than it is true."

Turning his gaze to Aqualad, Superboy grunted before crossing his arms and nodding. "I don't care what you think. I'm getting outside, whether I'm with you or not."

Seeing the group in a stand off of sorts, Robin shrugged his shoulders and placed his weapons back into his pockets, watching the scene go on. "He seems pretty determined about it. This isn't the way I imagined us getting Superboy out of here, but he's with us now. And it just means more firepower for us to use against the bad guys."

Still glaring back at Superboy while the others talked, the speedster finally relented and groaned. "Fine. But I'm watching you. You try anything to my friends or snow angel and you'll be messing with the wrath of Kid Flash." The speedster said, pointing a finger at him.

"If you guys are done arguing," Winter spoke, moving back to look at the group and motioning a thumb to the exit. "I think it's about time we get out of here. You can yell at each other once we're on actual ground."

"Agreed. Let's move." Aqualad ordered, the teens looking to one another before turning heel and heading out the doorway.

Yay! End of chapter! Well, I guess this means another part is coming. I'm hoping to type it up soon, but with work taking over the next couple of days and the holidays, I may be in for a rushed time. Maybe I can have it out on Christmas Eve?

The team has gotten back together after a strange turn of events. Though some aren't as easy to accept the powered Superboy than others, this group will just have to find ways to work together to get out of this Hell Cadmus really is. And once they do, how is everything going to turn out?

You'll just have to read next time! Have a good day/night/holiday!

P.S. Oh, I'm also going to be posting the titles of the next chapters now. Thought it would be fun. Perhaps the title will spark interest in some readers when they try to guess what could happen. ;3

Next Chapter: Fireworks