Author's Note: Thanks to IndiaMoore (They have a lot of work ahead of them), ethuil (Bruce is having problems now but he'll be essential to finding the real version), and Guest 1(Yes, the clone needs to be kept far, far away from Slade!) for reviewing the last chapter! I own nothing.
Starling City at night was an alluring spread of shimmering lights. It made Renegade uneasy. The young assassin preferred the shadows and grime of Bludhaven. He felt that the darkness matched what his soul had to be, stained and torn and worthless. Starling City was far too bright and lively to be comforting. Furthermore, he was worried that there wouldn't be enough shadows for him to blend into, enough cover to allow him to complete this job. "You look nervous." Helena's voice was smooth and almost emotionless enough to make him believe she wasn't curious about something.
"I don't worry," he said, still staring out the window of their hotel room. He didn't let even a bit of his displeasure and unease filter into his voice. He was far too well trained for that.
"I doubt that," Helena replied, arching one elegant eyebrow at him. Even dressed in blue jeans and a worn violet tank top she was still a very beautiful woman. Her eyes were also very dark, as if she'd seen much of what made the world a cruel and twisted place. He wondered absently what her story was. "I think you try not to feel," the woman continued. "Because it's safer."
"You are not here to think," Renegade retorted coldly, fighting to keep his voice level. Helena just smirked.
It was a fight for Batman to keep focused on the task at hand. Jonathan Crane had been running rampant through the streets of Gotham for the past three days and Bruce had been more focused on finding his actual son, and the clone Cadmus created of the young Dick Grayson. For so long he'd found nothing but his call to Oliver Queen that morning had changed everything. The clone was running around as Renegade, and worse yet he appeared to be connected to Deathstroke in some way. Slade Wilson was a ruthless and cunning enemy who had most likely tracked the clone down and taken advantage of the child's confusion and fear. Bruce Wayne desperately wanted to run to Starling City, to rescue the boy that had been his son just as much as the real Dick Grayson had been, but Batman had a job to do.
The Bat scanned the city, searching for Crane. As the Scarecrow, Crane spread fear and misery throughout Gotham. Often enough the Narrows rang with screams when the Scarecrow ran free. Unfortunately, tonight was suspiciously quiet. It wasn't helping that he was fighting not to slip into the Batmobile and head for Starling. His gaze fell on the vehicle and his eyes narrowed from beneath the cowl. Three of the Batmobile's tires where missing and there was a kid in a ratty red hoodie working on removing the last one. Temporarily distracted from thoughts of what was going on at Starling, Batman swung down from the rooftop towards the waiting ground below.
They were ready for Renegade, or at least as ready as they were going to get with only one day to prepare. Felicity had pulled up footage of the only fight against Renegade they knew about, though Roy could have done without seeing himself get pounded into the ground by someone half his size, and they analyzed his fighting style. They'd also used their knowledge of Starling to choose a location for their confrontation that would not result in possible civilian casualties. Oliver was settled on a rooftop of an abandoned building in the Glades, waiting for Renegade. Artemis was in an empty apartment to his left, watching for any sign of trouble, while Roy was across from her in another building.
The Glades was the poor part of Starling City. Roy had grown up there before Oliver had taken him in, had run the streets, and knew it inside and out. He also knew which direction Renegade was likely to come from. Sure enough, he caught a flicker of red just for an instant. "He's coming," Roy informed Oliver, knocking an arrow.
"Good," was the calm reply. Roy wasn't sure how Oliver could be so controlled about everything. Sure the man had spent five years on an island that was basically hell on earth and people tried to kill him when he was Green Arrow all the time but this was different. This was Robin, whether or not the clone would actually admit that he was the only Robin anyone had ever known. This was the small boy that, at the beginning of Roy's first meeting with the dynamic duo, had flung himself into Ollie's arms babbling excitedly. Roy had watched with wide eyes as Oliver had grinned, ruffled black hair, and situated the kid to settle the weight more comfortably in his arms without missing a beat. Robin had been ten at the time (actually technically he'd been a year old but none of them had known it at the time) and obviously it hadn't been the first time the boy had met Green Arrow. Roy didn't understand, in the face of all that, how Oliver could treat this as if it were just one more mission.
In contrast to their mentor's calm, both Artemis and Roy were jittery. Robin was Roy's little brother in all but blood, regardless of whether or not the boy was a clone. For Artemis, Robin had been the only member of the Young Justice team who had known the truth about her heritage and accepted her without hesitation. He'd known even before she'd told the team and yet hadn't behaved as if he felt the need to keep anything from her, besides his identity which no one on the team besides Wally knew anyway. Robin was important to both of them so neither one had taken the news about his sudden transformation into Renegade, and that his goal was to eliminate Oliver, well.
Renegade suddenly appeared out of thin air, crashing down on the sport where Oliver had been just moments before. Having somehow heard the disturbance, and Roy had long ago stopped questioning his mentor's ninja hearing, Oliver had rolled out of the way with just seconds to spare. Renegade lashed out, blade shimmering silver in the moonlight, and Oliver leaned casually away before smacking out with his bow. Renegade leaned back, obviously remembered the move from when he'd been fighting Roy. The move allowed Artemis's arrow to strike him in the shoulder. The sudden flash sent the assassin stumbling back and Oliver, who'd known what was coming, easily swept the kid's feet out from under him.
Roy winced slightly as the kid crashed hard to the ground, knowing from experience exactly how painful that movement was. Renegade brought another blade out from somewhere and this time Roy was the one who loosed an arrow, sending the knife spinning away. Renegade launched himself to his feet, scrambling back from Oliver's attack. He obviously was struggling to hold his ground against the larger man. Another blade slid out from somewhere and neither Artemis or Roy could remove it. Renegade was too close to Oliver to risk it.
The two struggled and Roy breathed out a sigh of relief when the knife went spinning across the rooftop and Renegade went down hard. Oliver pinned the smaller figure down only to have Renegade's head rear up. Their foreheads barely missed smacking together but Roy's arrow hitting the roof next to the small assassin's head kept the pinned figure still. Roy made himself watch as Oliver choked one of his best friends out, feeling as if he could breathe properly for the first time all night. They had captured Renegade. It was over.