Happy Harbor, Mt. Justice

December 31ST 7:16 a.m.

Valkyrie's Pov

"We have reason to feel proud after yesterday's victories," Aqualad said. I walked beside Robin, while my sister was walking beside Aqualad. "But one thing has not changed."

"Somehow, the bad guys are still getting inside intel on us," Robin said.

"Yeah, but at least we know none of us are the mole," Kid said, looking on the better side of things.

"That's correct," Batman said. He brought up a hologram of Red Arrow. "The mole was Red Arrow."

"Roy?" Robin asked, shocked by the news.

"No way!" Kid exclaimed.

"Batman, that cannot be," Aqualad argued. "He is Green Arrow's protegé, we have known him for years."

"Unfortunately, the Roy Harper we have known for the last 3 years was another Project Cadmus clone," Red Tornado said.

"We learned that the real Speedy was abducted and replaced, immediately after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick," Batman continued. "The clone was pre-programmed with a drive to join the Justice League. Which is why he was so angry over any delays to his mission, and why he refused to join the team. This Roy Harper had no idea he was a clone or a traitor. Or why his self-conscious program drove him to be so, 'League worthy'. So he struck out on his own as Red Arrow. When he was finally admitted, his secondary programming kicked in, and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage."

I winced at the sound of his name and stood closer to Robin. Batman seemed to notice and held his stare on me. I knew what that meant. Today is the day.

"Fortunately, I had already deduced Red Arrow was a clone," said Batman. "We were ready."

"Savage is subdued, but Red Arrow has escaped," Tornado said. "He is now a fugitive. Armed and dangerous."

"If you guys hadn't rescued me Cadmus..." Superboy trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What-what happened to the real Roy?" Robin piped up.

"We don't know. He isn't in Cadmus," answered Batman. "We have to face the possibility that the real Roy Harper, is dead."

I grasped Robin's hand and squeezed it gently. I understood how he was feeling, and I wanted to be there for him, like he would for me.

"The clone Roy, the team will find him," Aqualad told Bats.

"Negative, Red Arrow is a member of the League now, leave him to us," Batman said calmly. There was something off though, if Batman sent me that look, then how could Savage already be subdued? "I'm needed on the Watch Tower. Tornado, stay with the kids."

"Clone or no clone, Red Arrow was one of us," said Aqualad, as Batman left. "We will find him."

"Tornado?" I asked. There was no heat running through the wires in his body any more.

"I don't hear any moving gears in there," Kitsune said, looking over at Superboy who shook his head as well.

"He's totally powered down," said KF, examining Tornado.

Robin was already plugged with him, looking through his system. "All functions off-line."

"Guys, I'm sensing a low-level Mystic force at play, but I don't know if it caused his shut down," Zatanna said, a hand to her temple. "Now that I think about it, I was getting the same buzz off Batman."

"Batman?" Robin thought. "He called us kids. He never does that."

"Guys, look," Kid said. He picked up the small gem in Tornado's hand and eyed it. "One of those bio-tech chips we confiscated off Cheshire."

"Something is not right," Kaldur said in thought. "Robin, Valkyrie, Kid, Zatanna, Rocket, see if you could get Tornado back online. The rest with me to find Roy—Red Arrow."

"The problem is hardware, not software, but where do we start?" asked Robin.

With Miss M and Kitsune gone, I have to keep the link up for every now. I only learned a few weeks ago how mentally tiring it is.

"I have a thought," Zatanna said, looking up at Tornado's room.

After setting Tornado done on one of the stone tables we used in our mental exercise, and placing his android on the other, we started to download his brain into it.

"Downloading in progress," said Robin.

I was examining the downloading progress, when Black Canary walked in. "Hey guys, I came to check in, see how you were handling the-what are you doing to Red?!"

"It's not what it looks!" Kid quickly exclaimed.

"It looks like you're downloading his consciousness into a new body," Black Canary said, staring at the monitor behind me. How ironic to, since the download had just completed.

"Okay, so it's exactly how it looks, but—" Kid tried to cover.

"Team, get out of the cave, now!" Tornado sat up and shouted suddenly.

Canary start to use her famous 'Canary Cry' on us. Half of Tornado slammed into Kid, while his lower half knocked down Zatanna and Rocket. Robin and I hid behind the stone block, jumping on to it after she'd stopped. Robin hand springed at her, but she grabbed his arm and threw him down. I threw a bola at her, waiting for the sleeping gas to start-up. When it did, Rocket quickly formed a sphere around Canary, trapping all the gas in it. In no time, Canary was down.

"Black Canary, attacked us?" Zatanna asked in disbelief.

"Black Canary is the least of our problems," said Tornado. "We must abandon the cave."

We left the cave in a hurry on the Super Cycle (Sphere) just as Icon, Doctor Fate and Captain Marvel arrived. I had the pleasure of being seated beside Tornado, who was clinging on to the railing of the seat.

"Stay off your radium. Let the Super Cycle track Superboy. Instruct her to mask all signals, we can not allow the League to track us," Tornado told Robin, who sat up at the wheel, just behind Wolf.

"Right, of course. Just one question," Kid said. "Why is the Justice League after us?!"

"The entire League is under the complete mental domination of Vandal Savage," Tornado started to explain. My brows furrowed at the sound of his name. I didn't know if I was angry, confused or just nervous. "Red Arrow seemed to be his means. His method was something Savage referred to as 'Starro-Tech'. An alien bio-organism, infused with nano-technology and magic. It shuts down the minds autonomy, allowing Savage to reprogram the individual to suit his needs. Even my inorganic brain was not immune, but the process required 0.16 nano seconds to fully integrate with its host's nervous system. That delay allowed me to create an internal sub-program, which would disconnect my power cells if I attempted to infect another person. Fortunately, the Starro-Tech chip is specific. As John Smith, I am now free of outside control."

"This 'Starro-Tech', it worked on super-powered humans, 4 flavors of alien, an android, even Doctor Fate, defeating all of you without a fight?" Robin turned around to ask. He seemed distressed. His eyes were narrowed, and his face was hard in thought.

"Indeed, a remarkable achievement. One not easily countered," Tornado answered.

"I could try to reprogram Canary's chip though," I suggested. Everyone looked at me, thinking about my idea.

"Do it," said Robin, sending me a confident smile. Nodding back I looked at Zatanna. She seemed to understand and muttered something. Soon almost everyone on board had earplugs, except for me and Canary.

"Don't follow the orders of the Starro-Tech, and don't attack us," I started, surprised by how genuinely serious I sounded. "Until we can find a cure or vaccine, you will listen to us."

Her eyes glazed over, meaning that it had worked. I nodded for Zatanna to reverse her spell. The earplugs disappeared, and Canary was as docile as ever.

"Miss Martian, are you in range?" Robin asked.

"Here, Robin. Linking both squads and de-camouflaging," replied Miss Martian.

"Great, because we really need to compare notes," said Robin.

J.L.A Watch Tower

December 31ST 11:16 p.m.

"RT did it," informed Robin. "He wirelessly bypassed security as soon as he stepped in. Savage shouldn't know we're here."

"Move out," said Aqualad, giving the signal.

The ten of us split into pairs, each set assigned a different Leaguer to place a cure in. Aqualad went with Rocket to find Captain Atom, Kid and Artemis to find Plastic Man, Robin and Superboy with Hawkman, Zatanna and Miss M with Atom, and Kitsune and I Hal Jordan.

I lead Kitsune in the direction of what I was guessing was him. Oddly enough, he flew into the hall. Kitsune and I hid in the shadows, waiting until he was right on spot. I was the first one to step out. I whipped a few gas pellets at him. He turned around quickly, but by then, they'd already dispersed.

"Stop flying and don't move," I whispered. My voice was deadly low and serious.

He softly landed on the ground and froze. Kitsune was already in front of him, her glowing yellow eyes stood out in the smoke. Hal's knees buckled, and Kitsune quickly placed a Starro-Cure into his neck.

"Kitsune, Valkyrie, rendezvous with Robin and the others," said Aqualad's voice.

"On it, let's go," Kitsune said.

"You go, Canary and Red need help," I told her. She seemed hesitant, but nodded and ran back down the hall.

Running slightly further down the opposite end of the hall, I paused as I eavesdropped on Savage's conversation, hiding behind a column.

"Time to go," said Savage.

"Come on, we can take'em," Klarion argued.

"Yes, but in the process you'd lose control. Perhaps even destroy this station," Savage pointed out. "Whether or not their in our way, the Light still needs the Justice League alive, for phase 2."

"I wouldn't lose control," Klarion whined. Teekl meowed in argument. "Okay yeah, I'd bring the chaos."

"I just have one last thing I need to do," Savage said. He turned in my direction, and I froze. "Come back for revenge?"

I stepped out from my place behind the column slowly. I glared at Klarion and Savage. "I'm not going to let you get the better of me."

"Is that so?" Savage smirked.

I pulled my sword from my sheath, not even sure why I was still carrying it around. Or why I chose to wear my songbird pin today either. I front-flipped towards Savage, and landed right in front of him, pointing my sword to his neck. "Stop, and tell me your plans for phase 2."

I was so confident it had worked. Klarion had already put on ear mufflers, even on Teekl. Savage's eyes glazed over, but just when I thought he was going to tell me his plans, he grabbed my arms in a bone-crushing lock. He took my sword and slammed it into the ground.

"Nice try, but I've learned all about your big mouth. Klarion," Vandal faced Klarion giving him some sort of signal.

Klarion rose his hand almost like a goodbye, a huge red and black portal appearing from behind him. When I saw the portal swallow Klarion, I knew that this was it. My solo mission started now. But not before I finished one last thing. I used soul-clone the minute the portal came towards Savage and me. I somersaulted over to my left, transparent so that I was camouflaging. Savage didn't seem to notice, since he was already gone with my physical form.

Focusing on turning solid, I looked down at my sword. I took my songbird pin off and morphed the golden pin into a thin string of gold, while the songbird dangled from it. Placing it around the hilt of my sword, I smiled at it, remembering the first time Dick had given it to me. I felt the approaching body warmth of the rest of the team and turned around, putting on a smile as Aqualad, Kid, Artemis, Zatanna and Kitsune ran in.

"Congratulations team, you have won the day," said Tornado, looking at us from his position on the ground.

I noticed Robin, Superboy, Rocket and Miss M enter the room, and quickly stood beside Robin. A blue hologram appeared before us, reading January 1 00:00 a.m.

"Happy New Year, Justice League," came the auto-mated voice.

Kid suddenly swept Artemis off her feet, literally. "I really should've done this a long time ago."

"No kidding," Artemis smiled, wrapping her arms around Kid's neck. The two of them shared a kiss, the New Years tradition. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kitsune smiling at them proudly.

Miss M and Superboy smiled at each other, before they shared their first News Years together here on Earth.

I glanced at Robin, memorizing how his hair was disheveled as always, and how he stood proudly with a smile on his face. I turned to stand in front of him, a smile stuck on my face. I placed both of my hands on Robin's shoulders and pulled him towards me for a sweet kiss. I felt him kissing back, placing his hands on my hips and pulling me closer to him. I was so happy, but the fact that I wasn't going to be able to see him again broke me. I didn't realize I was crying until we pulled away for air.

"You okay?" Robin asked, his hands still on my waist.

I nodded, smiling, hoping to make his last memory of me a smiling one.

"Tears of happiness or sadness?" he asked, looking a bit unsure.

"Both," I whimpered. The tears stung at the edge of my eyes, but I wouldn't let another tear fall. So I put on a big smile, trying to look happier than I really was. "I have to go. Well, I'm already gone."

His face fell, from confusion and a bit of hurt. Why didn't I think about it before? How guilty I'd be when this moment would come? How much I was really going to hurt Dick? "Where are you going?"

"I actually don't know, I just hope I come back soon," I answered, placing a hand over the R of his uniform. Robin. A thought came into mind, and I looked up at him, wishing so badly that he wasn't wearing his domino mask. I couldn't see those misty-blue eyes one last time. "Could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"Smile. I want to see that signature smirk," one last time, I almost said.

"What are you talking about—"

"Please?" I begged, my voice almost inaudible.

His eyes softened, and looked like he was thinking almost. When he smiled, I couldn't help but burn the memory into my head, and the feeling of happiness when I saw it. I gave Dick a real genuine, content smile too. I could see how happy he was, when I did.

My last few minutes of happiness came to an end when I felt my physical form become more distant. This was it. I was going to be alone for who knows how long. No more Karie, the team, Alfred's cookies, rare Bruce/Bats moments, and most importantly, no more Dick Grayson. "Goodbye Dick. Don't forget to stay whelmed!"

I felt myself let go and disappear, finding my physical form and returning to it. I guess the worst part was that the last thing I saw was Dick's fallen face.

Some good-bye, right?

I don't think I've ever written anything more heartfelt, heart aching and as sad as the end of this chapter.

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