I tried to get this chapter up faster. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you guys really keep me going. And to everyone who's still reading, thanks. For the sake of keeping confusion to a minimum, if a Leaguer is referred to by their alias, they're from the YJ dimension. If they're referred to by their given name (Superman will be Clark, not Kal) there from the JL dimension. Ray Palmer will be the exception because there's only one Ray. Please forgive any slip ups. This chapter was supposed to be out last weakened but was eaten twice by my computer.

EDIT- Okay guys. So someone went through this story and left a few reviews but mainly sent me private messages telling me how boring and unoriginal and stupid this story was. They also felt that I should "keep my private boyfriend drama off the internet." To that person, really, that was petty and way below the belt. If it's so boring, stop reading and move on. I'm not even going to talk about the stab about Elvin. I've been on this site for five years and I've never felt so attacked. I mean it, one more crack and I'm deleting my account. I enjoy getting constructive criticism but overt hate isn't welcomed. Keep that crap to yourself.

Chapter 26

Blue Beetle's fingers tapped nervously over the console. He wished Robin hadn't cut the transmission so quickly. Maybe, maybe he could have talked the boy out of such a dangerous mission. There was no definite proof that it would even work and Robin would surely be killed in the process, fixed or not.

"Barry…" Blue Beetle heard a soft sigh come from across the room.
"Wally?" He breathed quietly. The boy gave a shuddering cough in response.
"My god, you're awake." Robin's plan had worked. It had actually worked. Blue Beetle rushed to his bedside. "Wally? Wally! I need you to stay awake for me? Do you remember what happened? Ray! Ray, get over here!" He shouted desperately.

"Wha…what happened?" Wally's eyes fluttered, his eyes widely dilated.

"You've been out for a while. Actually, you've been almost comatose, Wally. You really need to stay awake at this point so we can run some test. I don't want you slipping back. Can you do that for me?" Ray asked as he strode towards the bed, stethoscope out. "Come on, kid." Wally groaned audibly and fought to keep his eyes open.

"Am I in a hospital?" He asked groggily.

"Wally, you're in the infirmary at the cave. You've been sick for a while." Ray said, as he ran through a standard examination. "I want to do anther CT scan and as soon a J'onn gets back I want Wally's mind examined again. Wally!? Do you remember what happened to you?" He gave the boy a light shake to keep him awake.

"I fell," Wally said, "he didn't push me, I promise." Ray lurched back in surprise.

"What are you talking about, Wally? Do you remember anything about the other dimension? The Team? And who world have pushed you?" Wally's eyes glazed
over slightly as he remembered.

"We were in another dimension." He mumbled.

"Yes, Wally. That's right. You're back home now, okay?" Ray had moved down to his feet. "I want you to wiggle your toes for me. Can you do that?" Wally squeezed his eyes shut and gave it his best try.

"I can't feel them." The boy let out a dry sob. "What did they do to me!?" He wailed.

"Wally, Wally calm down okay. If you don't calm down, I'm going to have to sedate you and I really don't want to have to do that." Ray held his shoulders down. "Wally, snap out of it. Please!"

"I can't feel my legs! I can't run!" There were tears flowing down his cheeks as the anguish of the situation finally set in.

"Wally, it could just be the shock. You haven't given me the chance to really take a look, okay? Wally, stop it!" But the boy couldn't hear him anymore. Wally's screams of agony filled the cave.

"Ted, hand me that syringe! I've got to knock him out before he does any more damage to himself!" Ray held Wally's hands down above the boys head and injected the needle into his neck. Within seconds, the boy's eyelids began to droop and his whimpers began to quiet. Soon, Wally was asleep again.

Ray tired pulled at his hair. It was never going to end.

(Line Break)
"Green Arrow!" Artemis waved her arm wildly. "They're over there!" She shouted back to the others. Aqualad and Black Canary were hot on her heels. They'd only just cleared the blast zone when the explosion went off.

"Artemis!" Green Arrow greeted her with a tight hug and a sigh of relief. "God, what did you guys do? We heard the explosion and we didn't know what had happened to you." he pulled back from the hug.

"Where's Robin?" She heard a low voice ask. Artemis glanced over Green Arrow's shoulder to see the two Batmans glowering at her. She took a deep breath and stepped away from her mentor, the mask clutched tightly in her hands.

"Robin…Robin chose not to come with us." She said quietly. "He knew how to stop The Light and he took the chance. It's because of him we won." She held out the scrap of fabric. Batman glanced towards her outstretched hand before pushing past her and walking towards the wreckage.

"Batman! Where are you going?!" Wonder Woman demanded.

"I need to find Robin." The man grunted.

"The girl just told you he's dead. An explosion that size, he's probably in bits and pieces." Shayera said. Dinah elbowed her in the ribs.

"Honestly, at least pretend you care." She snapped.

"On my world, when the people die, we let them stay dead. There'll be nothing to find." Shayera shrugged.

"You forget, this isn't your world." Dinah chided. "And this isn't our dimension. This world's Batman loves his son and he may have just lost him. Try to at least pretend you understand!" She hissed.

Batman ignored them both as he strode further into the wreckage. He'd find Robin. He always managed to find the boy and no matter how broken, how battered, he always managed to bring him home safe.

'Maybe this will be the time he doesn't make it back.' He thought to himself. No. He'd only just gotten the boy back. How would he explain to Alfred that he'd failed, how would he-

Batman's walk turned into a run. Robin was alive. He had to be.

An explosion that size, he's probably in bits and pieces.

He kept moving forward. He climbed down into the underbelly of the desecrated building. The explosion had left a decent sized hole where the bomb had been. It was easy enough to find.

"Robin!" he called. His voice echoed off the remnants of the walls. There was no light, no life-

And there, trapped underneath a steel support beam and a slab of concrete was a flash of yellow.

"No…" Batman rushed to site. As he drew nearer, he could see a pale foot sticking out from underneath the rubble at an odd angle. "Robin!" he called again. The boy gave no response. Batman dug his heels in and tried to lift the slab off his injured ward. It barely gave way but he refused to give up.

"Move, you can't do this by yourself." Batman groaned internally at the sound of his own voice coming from someone else's mouth. "Shayera, go to the other side, help us get this off him." The winged woman wisely kept her mouth shut and followed his instructions. She hoisted the support beam up, freeing the slab for the two Batman's to remove.

Batman immediately sunk to his knees and pressed index and middle finger to the boy's throat. Robin was pale, unnaturally so.

"Come on, Robin." He hissed when he felt nothing. He immediately began compressions, his heart pounding in his ears as he tried to breathe for the boy. "Robin, get up!" he shouted.

"Batman…Bruce-" Shayera tried.

It was as if he hadn't heard her. He pressed down even harder on Robin's chest, trying to get his heart to pump the newly oxygenated blood to his brain hoping, begging for the boy to just be alive again and –

Robin drew a shuddering breath.

(Line Break)

"Conner? Conner, where are you?" Clark called anxiously. The boy hadn't surfaced with the others.

"I'm sure he's fine. You're worrying for nothing." Superman fought the urge to roll his eyes. Now he was out looking for the clone as well.

"He should have been with the others. You saw how upset he was when he left the Javelin. I don't like the idea of him being out here all by himself." Clark tilted his head to the side and focused hard on listening. He waited for a moment and then he heard it, an agonized sob ripping through the trees. Clark's eyes widened at the noise. "He's in trouble."

The two Supers shot into the sky, searching for the origin of the noise. They found Conner sitting high in one of the trees above the marshland.

"Conner? What's happened?" Clark and Superman settled onto the ground at the base of the large tree.

"Just leave me alone." The teen ground out. Clark frowned. They should be happy, they'd won.

"Conner, please come down. Let's talk this out, okay?" The ground shuddered as the teen jumped down from his perch and began stalking away from the two older me.

"Conner-"

"God will you just shut up! Don't you fucking get it? I was never supposed to exist! That's why nothing in my life will ever make sense. Nothing will ever be good for me because that would mean my life actually has meaning and it just doesn't. I'll never be able to fly or really be super but I'll never be really human either. I guess I can't please either of my fathers." Conner spat angrily. Clark actually had to take a step back, not expecting the teen's venomous tone.

"We'll work on your flight, Conner. I promised you-"

"Promises. I'm sick of everyone's promises. I've always wanted people to just give it to me straight and the one guy that does just happens to be your worst enemy-"

"Luthor? He's the reason you're acting like this. God, what'd the guy do?" Superman stood off to the side, not really wanting to be a part of the quarrel but not really comfortable with just bailing either.

"Congratulations to me, I found my other father. And just look at my luck, he's Luthor. You've got another reason to hate me, heck, I hate me." Conner began to laugh hysterically. And then there were tears running down his cheeks and Clark…Clark wasn't really sure when the laughter had turned to sobbing but then he was holding the shattered youth, whispering comforts, and praying that everything would be okay.

(Line Break)
"Roy! He's still in the javelin with M'gann!" Black Canary suddenly cried. In all the excitement of what seemed like a definite victory, she'd completely forgotten about the abandoned Javelin in the marshland. "I can't believe we forgot about them! We have to go now!"

"What about Batman?" Wonder Woman asked.

"He'll be fine! He's Batman! Roy was unconscious when we left. So Was Miss Martian. God, we never should have left them alone! They're defenseless!" Black Canary could hear Green Arrow chasing after her as she ran through the swamp. It was different above-ground and not in the sewage pipes.

He nearly ran into the back of he when she came to an abreast halt. "Oh no…" She breathed. There were bodies littered all over the ground. Her eyes darted from corpse to corpse looking for any flashes of red-

"These wounds were made by arrow heads, Roy killed these people" Green Arrow said quietly. He pulled his hand away from one of the victim's necks. There was no pulse anywhere.

"No, you're wrong. Roy would never do anything like that. He'd never hurt anyone, not purposefully anyway. Roy isn't a killer." Black Canary snapped fiercely. She physically shoved herself away from and fought the childish urge to cover her ears with her hands. She could see Martian Man Hunter and Wonder Woman carrying M'gann's limp body from the abandoned jet.

"Dinah look! Damnit. Just look. They were probably corned Roy didn't know what else to do so he killed them. Doesn't make it right or okay but you have to accept that it happened!" He shouted.

"No! I won't accept that. There had to have been another way out." She shouted back.

"I know you didn't want to accept that he was on drugs either-""Don't you dare condemn him for that. Maybe I didn't accept it but you didn't even care! You would have never even known if I hadn't told you!"

"Don't go acting all holier than thou! You didn't know either. I know Batman had to tell you what he was doing. We both messed up. I know that. Why do you think I've been so watchful with Artemis, so careful with her? We lost Roy, Dinah. We lost him a long time ago. I accepted that. If we hold onto it forever, we'll never move forward with Artemis."

"How are you so willing to replace him, to just move on!? I thought he was like a son to you." Black Canary gave him a harsh shove.

"He was. He always will be. But Roy was damaged and I couldn't fix him. I couldn't fix all the mistakes I made with him. He's going to have to find his own way, now. Hopefully the body count won't be too high while he does it." Green Arrow knew he was coming off a cold but it was truth. It'd taken him forever to
accept that the little boy he'd tried to raise was never coming back. Now if he could only get her to see it as well. Black Canary wanted to smack him. How could he just let go of all that they'd worked for-how could he just let go of their son?

"I thought you loved him." She whispered severely

"I do. More than anything. That's why I know how this is going to end. I know Roy. I've seen stronger men go down his path." He reached down and took her hand. "It's not your fault, Dinah. If it's anyone's, it's mine."

"Ollie-"

"Canary." She heard a voice command. Black Canary looked up to meet Wonder Woman's eyes. "You need to see this." Wonder Woman led them inside the Javelin and there, right, hastily scratched on the wall where M'gann had been resting not too long ago were two words:

I'm Sorry

(Line Break)

"You alright, Ginger?" They were in car now. A nice car. She was a convertible, blood-red. For a moment Roy wondered where this kid got the money to buy such nice things. Even in his years with Ollie, Roy'd never so much as touched a convertible. She was beautiful too.

"I have a name, you know." He said quietly, watching the swampland disappear as they crossed the state line.

The blue eyed driver just smirked. "I know your name, Speedy. Just thought you'd want to leave that part of you behind with all those bodies. You're not exactly a little kid anymore. Like the bow by the way, kind of badass but you need a new name. I personally like Arsenal. You know to use a lot more than just the bow. Describes you perfect. And it's kind of crazy. It works. And I know this girl who's gonna help us out. Total bombshell. You'll meet her soon."

"Great, I get to run around with you and you and your girlfriend. Nice" Roy said sarcastically. The guy actually had the nerve chuckle. Didn't he know that this was serious?

"No dude, she doesn't do relationships. Great lay but I got no claim on her. She's got red hair too. Sometimes I think I should just go ahead and stop dying mine. We can be a club." The kid stopped the car. "You don't have to come with us, you know. I know you followed the same honor code that I used to but now, now I make my own. I like to work outside the law. So does she. If you're squeamish or scared you should really get out of my car."

Roy studied him carefully. He was sixteen, maybe seventeen, practically jailbait but the tension in his body and the gun at his hip spoke to years of training and a nonexistent conscience. Roy knew that the kid would kill him in a heartbeat, shove his body out of the car and drive off without a second thought. It sent chills down his spine to think of what he was about to do.

But hey, if he was already going to hell, why not do it right? He shot the younger teen a smirk of his own.

"Keep driving."

(End Chapter)

So this is probably the last we'll be seeing of Roy. I love him to death so he might pop up I note somewhere but no major appearances. Cookies to any of you guys who figured out who the driver was. I believe there should be one more chapter to wrap up the loose ends of the plot (if you have any questions please leave them for me so I don't leave anything out) and then an epilogue of sorts. You all seemed to want A Matter of Survival to be the next story I work on so that's where we're headed next. Comments, Questions, Concerns? You know what to do.

-IFW