Chapter Three —
"Is it harder to mourn an actual loss or loss of an ideal you never had?"
Hanging from her wrists in the same cell she'd woken up in nearly three years ago and with every part of her body aching from the torture she'd endured hours before, Arley hummed Jason Durelo's Whatcha Say in the back of her throat in an effort to distract herself from the pain.
It was the only song she could remember all the words to at the moment.
The blood that'd been dripping from her nose had dried on her face and the fresh burn marks that littered the space between her shoulder blades had finally gone numb; Arley could spot her dead ring in the corner of the room on a makeshift pedestal Sportsmaster had put together sometime after her awakening, practically taunting her.
Psychological torture was just as important as physical torture, or so Sportsmaster had said.
The cattle prod Sportsmaster had used on her earlier— Arley had no clue if it was day or night, just that it was mid-April —laid idly on the lab table Arley had long ago woken up upon. She got to use the table to sleep sometimes but for the most part Sportsmaster kept her strung up; the tips of her toes just barely grazed the floor.
The cattle prod laid next an array of sharp objects and whips and other devices that Arley had grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of over the past thirty months.
In the Corps— in boot camp —Lanterns are taught to endure, to withstand, because the Corps never leaves a man behind; and Arley knew that she just had to endure a little more before she was saved.
Because she would be saved, whether it was by the Corps or by Wally— the boy she'd grown up loving —she would be saved.
Arley wondered, not for the first time, what Oa looked like nowadays; if any new buildings had been built in her time of capture and if the Guardians City had continued to expand across the desert planet it was on.
Closing her eyes Arley imagined, not Oa or the city but the night sky of the planet. Hal had destroyed the planet's moon years ago, back during his first fight with Sinestro but that didn't stop the stars from twinkling at night and from Oa's spot at the center of the universe there were so many stars.
Hot; Arley could remember the heat she'd feel when she and her partners would fly past stars on their patrols.
She'd get to experience it all again one day; Arley knew she would. The League wouldn't come, they were filled with moles and clones and splinter agents for the Light, but that didn't matter because Hal and John would come back to Earth and find a lead that would bring them into the depths of Cadmus Labs, or Guy would wake up from his coma one day and somehow track her down, or Wally and the boys would crash through the door and rescue her like she was some damsel in distress.
Arley was fine with dying young, she always knew that's how her story would end but she absolutely refused to allow Vandal Savage and his hired muscle— Sportsmaster —to be the ones who ended her life. If she died she'd die in a fight, like all great Lanterns; there'd be stories written about her final battle and passed on for centuries, she wouldn't— couldn't; refused to —die alone in some unknown cell.
Arley went to move— to roll her shoulders back —only to let out a hissed groan when the burns on her back moved with her.
"Mmm whatcha say," Arley sang lowly, the old summer pop hit fell flat as she sang it, her eyes watered from the pain; if she didn't think about the pain it wouldn't hurt, she'd learned that as a child. "That you only meant well. Well of course you did," she spoke.
The door to her cell creaked open and Arley glared at it.
"You know Sporty—oh, Dubbilex," Arley blinked at the blue horned G-Goblin that was pushing open her cell door, not Sportsmaster. A small smile pulled at her lips and her voice lost the sarcastic and combative tone that it had held seconds before, "Hey."
Dubbilex was— in Arley's option —the only reason she was still alive and sane. The genomorph who had— incidentally —been the one to lead her into Cadmus Labs underbelly was the one over the past few years who stitched her shut and bandaged her up, keeping her from bleeding out, whenever Sportsmaster would go too far. And when her mouth would get her in trouble and she'd be left to rot in her cell for indeterminate amounts of time, it'd be Dubbilex's voice echoing through her head, talking to her, telling her everything he'd like to do when he got out from Cadmus and the Lights thumbs.
Because just like she'd be saved he too would one day get to leave.
"Arley," Dubbilex said sharply, Arley's brows raised as she took in his tone and the fact he had a small medical bag thrown over his shoulder, "We need to get you out of here."
Arley blinked at the G-Goblin as she stepped around her and opened the medical bag.
"Excuse me?" Dubbilex had always said he couldn't be the one to free her because if he was, Cadmus would destroy all evidence of the genomorphs and of Superboy before the Corps could get to them; that he and all the other genomorphs littering the secret underground facility would all be exterminated and Superboy would be spirited off to some other secret location.
"No-Kid and the others, they'll get me out of here," Arley assured, "I mean, what about you and Superboy and the other genomorphs?" From the corner of her eye Arley could see Dubbilex press his lips together harshly.
"The other genomorphs are gone," Dubbilex said tightly, Arley bit her tongue as Dubbilex put the peroxide onto her back, "Cadmus is moving onto better versions," his hissed; he was obviously quoting someone— Desmond probably —and just as her mouth opened to reply Arley sucked in a sharp breath of air, the feeling of the bandages pressing against her burns nearly made the captive Lanterns see double.
Dubbilex moved so that he was facing Arley, his hand was still in his medical bag.
"You are next. You are no longer of any use to the Light, Dr. Desmond got the message twenty minutes ago." Arley's brows knitted together. "I intercepted it after the fact but you do not have time-we do not have time."
"I thought Savage needed me to learn about the Corps-does he have another Lantern!" Arley surged forward urgently, the tips of her toes grazed the concrete floor. She needed to know if Savage had another Corpsmen, if he had one of her fathers.
"No," Dubbilex shook his head, "I don't think so, there was no mention of it in the message." Dubbilex pulled out an incredibly— almost comically —large syringe filled with some sort of clear liquid, and held it up to the only light in the room; the light was dim and flickering and Dubbilex grimaced.
"What the kriff is that?" Arley asked with a high pitched note to her voice; she'd never been scared of needles before but she had also never before seen once that big.
"Adrenaline, five whole ounces of it." Wally was the nerd— Arley liked literature and history, Wally liked to tinker and build and recite the periodic table after they made out —but that didn't mean Arley was dumb, she knew well enough that five fluid ounces were in all actuality fifty-nine-point-fifteen milliliters. She also knew the average, modern day syringes held up to ten milliliters.
"That will kill me Dubbilex," Arley said.
"Either this dose or Dr. Desmond dose," Dubbilex replied. "I need you to help me save the Superboy, please, you promised me you wouldn't leave here without him-that you'd get him out even if it was the last thing you did."
She had, hadn't she; back when she'd been newly captured and trying to bargain with Dubbilex to free her she had sworn on her ring that she would bring Superboy to freedom if he broke her out.
"Right," Arley nodded, "Okay, come—fuck!" Arley swore loudly as Dubbilex stabbed the large syringes, long, thick needles into her thigh, as Dubbilex injected her with the adrenaline Arley let out a whistled growl from behind her clenched teeth.
After having pulled the needle out, Dubbilex didn't bother to look where he threw it and instead, as his horns glowed red, looked up at the ceiling where Arley's bounded wrists kept her hanging. Dubbilex waved his hand— and for a moment Arley's heart jolted her chest hard enough to make her think that she was having a heart attack —and the shackles she'd been thrown into a day or two before broke.
An alarm blared as Arley dropped to the floor, and Arley and Dubbilex looked at each other. Arley's muscles began to feel tight; not painfully so— she was no longer in pain due to the adrenaline —but rather like they were coiling together, getting ready to spring forward.
"Come on," Dubbilex said and Arley nodded; not feeling her open and healing wounds as she moved easily around Dubbilex so that she could grab her ring— which she, for a split second, paused to marvel at as she slipped it back onto her her grimy, gaunt and now crooked middle finger —and the large intimidating hunting knife that Sportsmaster had used on her weeks ago.
Her blood was still on the blade.
With the alarm blaring overhead Dubbilex lead Arley out of the room, the two of them raced down the hall; some months ago Sportsmaster had broken her left leg and though it had healed it hadn't healed right, leaving Arley— despite having a criminally large amount of adrenaline rushing through her veins —to still trail slightly behind Dubbilex.
Arley and Dubbilex ran down another hall and then another, the once purple pods that stuck half out of the cavernous walls were gray and though Arley didn't pay attention to them Dubbilex was, the genomorph looked at every gray pod in horror and despair and guilt.
The two of them only stopped running when they were met by the Guardian; the man stood in the middle of a corridor, blocking both her and Dubbilex from going any further.
Fuck, Arley swore mentally, the Gurdians eyes were empty and clouded over and though there was no genomorph on his shoulder there was no reasoning with him, he'd been given his objective to carry out . Fuckfuckfuck-he gonna kill us! Movemovemove!
Not bothering to wait for Dubbilex to attack first, Arley, with enough adrenaline to kick start a half dozen Hutt hearts flowing through her system, raced past the genomorph and at the masked Cadmus lackey. In the nearly three years she'd been the Light's captive she'd never seen his face but with what she had to do it was probably for the better.
Wielding the knife Arley stabbed upwards only for the Guardian— the Cadmus controlled hero —to grab her wrist, his fist swung forward and Arley jerked her head back to avoid it.
Can't get caught again, can't get caught again, Arley thought to herself, Fightfightfight. Kilowog flashed in Arley's head; Fight smart not hard. Smartsmartsmart.
An idea struck her; leaning forward, with her left hand Arley swiped the Guardians hand from her wrist and moved to act like she was going to backhand him.
The Guardian bobbed left like she wanted and without a second thought in her fuzzy, adrenaline clouded head, Arley threw the knife from her right to her left hand; Arley's right fist swung out and the Guardian bobbed left once more. His eyes flickering between the knife and Arley's fist.
The Guardian went to grab Arley by her shoulders and the dark haired girl took a step back. Arley swiped the knife at the Guardian and tossed the blade back into her right hand and as the Guardian stepped forward, ready to bring the curve of his shield down onto her skull, Arley stepped right and stabbed the Guardian in the side of the head.
The man's blue eyes crossed as Arley twisted the blade and if not for the fact that all she was hearing was her own blood thumping through her veins the squishing sound that emanated as she ripped the knife from the supposed hero's head would have made her sick.
Killing wasn't new for Arley; the Corps had been throwing her into battle since she was nine, when she'd been ten she had beheaded a warlord from Geonosis who'd nearly killed Hal, and usually Arley felt sick to her stomach when she had to use deadly force but with her thoughts racing— whirling, fight or flight had kicked in and Arley had chosen fight —and her heart pounding just slightly louder than the blaring alarm Arley couldn't focus on the fact she'd stabbed the Guardian.
She could barely process the fact. All she knew was that she had to get Superboy and that the two of them, and Dubbilex had to get out before the Light— Savage —sent reinforcements.
As he ran past the Guardian, who had dropped to his knees, Dubbilex, without sparing the masked hero a second look, grabbed Arley's wrist and dragged her down a series of several more cavernous corridors.
Neither of them paid any attention to the bloody blade or the fact that the side of Arley's left hand was covered in the Guardians blood; the two of them were too focused on running until they were back at the room that had started it all.
Dubbilex's horns glowed red, the door labeled Project Kr was telekinetically ripped from the doorway and crumbled in on itself like a ball of paper before flying into the room; the yellow crystals that Arley hadn't stopped thinking out in nearly three years still twinkled early over the sleeping clones pod.
Arley looked at the pod and noticed how the clone hadn't seemed to age since the last— and first —time she'd seen him nearly three years ago; he still looked sixteen.
Kriff, She thought from her place next to Dubbilex, Go back, go back, go back—Warning Mr. Robinson, danger!
"'S not gonna attack us right?" Arley asked the G-Goblin, bouncing up and down on her toes; she needed to move with all the adrenaline flowing through her veins. "Even hopped up on all this shit I don't think I can take 'im."
She hadn't been out of that cell in thirty three months— thirty if her uncious body had been held somewhere else —but under the yellow crystals her cell seemed almost welcoming. Under those yellow crystals anywhere else in the universe seemed almost comforting.
"We're fine," Dubbilex said, his horns still glowing red. Dubbilex moved his hand through the air, opening the pod as the Superboy's blue eyes opened.
KriffKriffKriff, Arley thought, panicked. Arley's breath caught in her throat and her hands lifted, the bloody knife she'd attacked— killed —the Guardian with, was held out defensively in front of herself ready to defend both herself and Dubbilex from the clone if need be.
"Brother," Dubbilex greeted the clone with a look over his shoulder, Arley watched as the clone boy stepped fully out of the pod and roll his shoulder back, as if he were waking up from a long nap.
"Dubbilex," the clone breathed and Arley turned in Dubbilex's direction and raised her brows half impressed and half accusingly in his direction.
Arley had always spent so much time thinking about the others— Hal and John, Guy if he ever awoke from his coma, and Wally —coming for her; she had never thought that Dubbilex would be laying the groundwork for an escape.
Why would she? Dubbilex, had been adamant that an escape would mean death for all genomorphs; whether it was him helping her escape or escaping all on his own, up until he'd come into her cell, Dubbilex orchestrate a jailbreak of any kind had seemed far-fetched.
"We must go," Dubbilex said, the Superboy looked at Arley as he stepped down from his pod, and Arley, who'd felt the weight of his gaze on her turned to look at him; he was— for the most part —Superman's clone and without a doubt could heart Arley's fast beating heart just as loudly as she could hear it beating away in her own ears.
"And how are we going to do that?" The clone sniped, "I can't fly us out of here and neither can she." So he knew about the limitations of his powers; Dubbilex had told her all about how the Superboy was half human years ago, back when she would plan elaborate escapes in her head.
Sometimes in those scenarios the Corps— Hal and John and Guy; Kilowog and Katma too —would save her and they would use a construct to drill their way back to the surface, in others— before Dubbilex had told her about the human DNA patchworked into the Superboy genetic makeup —Wally would sneak into Cadmus and she and him would rely on the Superboy to fly them up the elevator shaft. After he had told her that though, she liked to picture Wally and Dick and Roy and Kaldur would come as a team to save her; that they and Dubbilex and the clone boy would valiantly fight their way out of Cadmus together.
A combative, and argumentative, Go fuck yourself was on the tip of Arley's tongue when Dubbilex spoke; "I have a plan but we have to be quick if Desmond finds us before we escape we're all as good as dead-us more so than you."
"Then what are we waiting around here for," the Superboy replied dryly.
Dubbilex's pointed ears twitched and the G-Goblin spun, he lead Arley and Superboy, both of whom rac behind him, down a corridor until they came to the elevator shaft; Dubbilex's horns glowed red and the elevator shafts door blew back from its hinges and fell into the shaft.
Dubbilex turned to Superboy, "Grab onto me and Green Lantern, and jump as high as you can, I've already ridged floor fifteens' door open so I can use my powers to propel us there."
The three of them moved to the edge of the elevator shaft,
"What then?" Arley asked as Superboy wound his arm around her waist; she wrapped her arm— the one not holding the knife —around the clone's neck, as Dubbilex did the same on Superboy's other side, "We'll still have fifteen floors to clear."
"We head to the stairs, from there we get out."
It seemed too easy and if Arley didn't voice that it was only because Superboy had jumped before she could and the words had caught in her throat. Jumping was not like flying, neither was Dubbilex using his powers to throw them clear onto floor fifteen's entrance but it was close enough that Arley's hand had started shaking as she got to her knees.
Cadmus' alarm was blaring, the League had to know something was up; sure it was filled with moles and such but Wally and the others had to know something was wrong at Cadmus Labs by now. They'd come for her, they had too.
Dubbilex got to his feet— Superboy and Arley followed suit —and ran left, the brightly lit hallway of sublevel fifteen was nothing like the dark cavernous corridors of sublevel fifty-two or the ominous and evil looking halls of sublevel twenty-six.
The three of them went right, and then left and then made another left before the 'Fire Exit' greeted them almost warmly. Dubbilex threw his weight onto the door and roughly pushed it open; Arley went to grab for the stairs railing— she couldn't feel her leg throbbing but running and running up stairs were two different things —only for Superboy to turn to her. He blew a harsh breath of air out of his nose.
"I got you," he said, and before she could protest, Superboy grabbed Arley's arm and swung her around onto his back, Arley clutched the clones supersuit under her fingers, her nails bit into the red 'S' that was printed onto the chest of his otherwise white suit.
Arleys first instinct was to throw herself back, away from the clone but she knew— under the haze of the adrenaline —this was faster; better, but the fact that he had just grabbed her made the Lanterns lips twitch into a snarl.
After nearly three years of torture being grabbed made her skin jump.
The three of them burst through the final door atop the stairwell marked 'Sub-1' and rushed around the corner only to be met with a thick, closed off corridor, cutting them off from the street. Wiggling, off the clone's back Arley looked at Dubbilex, "Can you use your powers to open that?"
"No," Dubbilex said, "Maybe?" Arley could practically see his mind working as his tiny, beady eyes scanned the corridor wall, "This way!"
Dubbilex's horns glowed red and a panel Arley hadn't noticed flew back, creating an opening for them to go through. Dubbilex nearly ran over Arley's toes as he dashed past her and Superboy and Arley bounded after the G-Goblin; only to immediately find Dr. Desmond standing before them.
The man looked disheveled, his long auburn hair was out of it's ponytail and there was a bright glowing blue beaker in his hand. Unlike the years she had spent in Sportsmasters presence Arley had only come into contact with the scientist a handful of times while in Cadmus' clutches; though she had heard everything about him— how he was a pompous nerf herding sack of bantha shit —from Dubbilex.
Arley brandished her knife, she went to step forward only to stop when Dubbilex took two.
"Move aside Desmond," Dubbilex ordered coolly. "I am taking the Superboy and Green Lantern and we are leaving." Desmond laughed callously at Dubbilex's declaration.
"The only place you and that Lantern are going are into the incinerator with the rest of those obsolete genomorphs—Superboy, Red Sun." Arley looked at Superboy, expecting something— anything —to happen, only for the clone to smirk, Desmond's eyes narrowed.
Superboy glared angrily at Desmond, a fire was lit behind his eyes. "Sorry, but those words don't work anymore."
"You traitorous little whelp," Desmond spat at Dubbilex.
"Traitorous?" Dubbilex scoffed, "I begged you to allow me to take the other genomorphs, I told you we wouldn't go to the League-to Superman, the Lanterns, anyone you and the Light didn't already have under your thumbs, I told you that we would live where no one would find us! And you murdered them!"
Arley's shoulder jerked back at the G-Goblins' raised voice, just like she had never imagined Dubbilex planning a jailbreak Arley had never imagined him yelling either.
"You sensitive, sad sack of shit, they were prototypes-you're a prototype!" Desmond yelled, gripping the glowing blue vile in his hand, "I was going to let you live and I was going to kill you—" Desmond spat in Arley's direction, "—Humanly, but now I see that's no longer an option."
Popping off the cork of the vile with his thumb Desmond threw back his head and drank the glowing, bright blue contents. Immediately, with a pain filled cry, the man dropped to his knees; Arley could hear his bones crack under his skin as they visibly shifted and the mans skin began to stretch as he grew, his clothes tore, and Arley felt herself take an involuntary step back at the horror as his skin tore as he continued to grow. Desmond, now a hulking blue monster roared as it got to his feet.
Fuckfuckfuck-Chayara's soul, holy kriffing fuck, Arley thought panicked.
Though she had been tortured for thirty straight months Arley was sure the image of Desmond changing into the hulking monster he now was, would be something she saw in her nightmares. Desmond— what had once been Desmond —clambered to his— its —feet.
"What's the game plan Dubbilex?" Arley asked as she slid her feet apart, readying herself for a fight.
Before the G-Goblin could respond Superboy lunged forward and hit Desmond. Desmond hit him back, the boy though, didn't crumble. In response Superboy hit Desmond a dozen more times only for the beast to roar, not even perturbed by the assault. Desmond threw Superboy across the hall only for the clone boy to immediately shoot back towards him; Desmond jumped and both he and Superboy crashed through the ceiling.
Arley looked up at the hole in the ceiling, and then at the blue skinned genomorph.
"You know how to change Desmond back right?"
"No," Dubbilex responded as they heard a crash overhead; Superboy let out a loud, frustrated shout, "I didn't even know Desmond still had Project Blockbuster, the experiment moved on to it's next stage years ago."
Arley's brows knitted together and the corridor shook as another loud and booming crash came from overhead, "Moved on?"
"We don't have time, we have to help Superboy stop Desmond before the Light sends reinforcements."
"Wally will come," Arley said automatically. "He and the boys, they've got to know somethings up by now—" Arley shot Dubbilex a pointed look as the first underground floor of Cadmus Labs shook, "He-they, will come."
Savage had been right about Lanterns being all brawn but no brain because it wasn't as if Arley were adverse to fighting whatever Desmond had turned into but rather— because she believed Wally and the boys would come; they still had time to show up and save the day —she and Dubbilex needed to worry more about staying alive in the fight against the monster Desmond had turned into— at least until the boys came —and less about whatever reinforcements Light would send.
"Arley—" Dubbilex had started,
"—He's coming," Arley snapped back.
Wally West may have walked out of the Hall of Justice the day she'd been captured but he would never give up on her, until he saw her body he wouldn't stop looking for her, just like— if the roles had been reversed —she wouldn't stop looking for him.
"Right," Dubbilex said, though he didn't sound convinced, not like Arley was, "Nonetheless we need to help the Superboy."
Arley spun the knife in her hand, her heart hammered in her chest; she was about to fight a bloodthirsty monster with nothing more than a hunting knife.
"Alright then, come on."
Dubbilex's horns glowed red and both himself and Arley were propelled through the hole Superboy and Desmond had created, the pair ducked just as they landed in order to avoid Superboy's body as it flew through the air.
Before Superboy could land on the already destroyed front desk he stopped and for a second floated in midair as Dubbilex used his powers to gently lower him to his feet; the clone looked at both the blue skinned genomorph and Arley.
"Thanks for joining." Desmond— whatever he had turned into —was slowly picking himself up off the floor and out of the rubble that was the broken column he had obviously crashed into.
"You know Superman is actually likable," Arley snapped; Superboy threw her a dry and withering glare and with her fingers curled tightly around the hilt of the knife Arley's lips twitched into a half hearted snarl.
"Focus," Dubbilex snapped, as Desmond let out a roar, Arley's head snapped in Desmond's direction, away from Superboy and her mostly healed leg slid behind her right and she got into form; Superboy might've been the only one able to take one of the monsters hits but Arley was the only one with experience in a fight— she was a Green Lantern, ring or not —and it was her responsibility to keep the clone and Dubbilex alive and out of the Lights until the boys came.
'Fight smart not hard and you'll live to see another day white circle,' Kilowog had told her. Smart not hard, smartsmartsmart.
"Follow my lead," Arley said and as Desmond took a running start towards them Arley did the same, only to slide between the monsters legs, Desmond turned to look at her as she flipped onto her hands and knees and arched her back, only to growl as Superboy leapt at him and punched him clean across the face.
Arley flinched as Desmond's body topped over her; she felt the wind get knocked out of her as Desmond hit the ground behind her. Quickly, Arley scurried her feet; as Desmond turned Superboy bent his knees and readied himself to wrestle the former human in order to keep him down, only to be violently grabbed and shoved roughly into another of the lobbies column.
Superboy punched Desmond, but Desmond— as if Superboys blows were nothing —shook them off and reeled his arm back. Desmond hit Superboy once— causing the column to sprinter and break even more —and then moved his arm to hit him again only to stop.
With Dubbilex's horns glowing a bright red, Desmond's large blue arm quivered against an unseen force. With a snarl Desmond growled and using the arm he still had around Superboy's sternum, threw the clone harshly into another column across the room. A piece of concrete that had fallen from the collem, hit Superboy.
Superboy, with a yelp hit the floor and Arley looked anxiously at the Labs glass doors. If there was ever a time for the boys to come crashing in to save the day it was then; but nothing happened. Wally didn't appear and Dick's laughter didn't echo through the lobby and there was no glow from Kaldur's water bearers to be seen or, rude and sarcastic quip from Roy to be listened to.
"Help Superboy," Dubbilex instructed through gritted teeth, and with a pull of his hands, as if he were pulling a rope, Desmond stumbled. Arley moved towards where Superboy lay and grabbed the sharp and rough edges of the concrete slab that'd fallen on the clone.
"You're alive right?" Arley hissed as she pulled on the concrete slab. Desmond stumbled again and sweat needed Dubbilex's large blue forehead. The concrete moved slightly and Arley yanked the slab back towards herself; Superboy slowly got to his hands and knees, the clone sucked in a harsh breath of air.
"Yeah," Superboy hissed, he looked up to Arley and smirked, "Lucky for you, right?"
"If I had my ring I'd kick yours and Desmond asses Boy Blue," Arley snarked as she sidestepped the slab of concrete. Superboy stood; Desmond roared and Superboy flew at him.
Smartsmartsmart. Fight smart not hard.
But how was Arley supposed to fight smart when she couldn't even fight? Arley looked up at the ceiling as Dubbilex sent Desmond stumbling away from Superboy and into another column; small bits and pieces of rubble fell around her.
We're gonna rock this babe! Wally's voice floated through Arley's head, it sounded so much like him that Arley's head had snapped up in the direction of the still closed lobby doors.
He still hadn't come, none of the boys had. He still could though, all of them still could; but for the first time in thirty months Arley's conviction wavered. Superboy was thrown through another column and Arley knew that she and both Superboy and Dubbilex needed to end this fight on their terms before the fight ended them.
But by doing that it would mean that Wally hadn't come for her. It would mean that Dick and Kaldur and Roy hadn't either, that none of them had.
"Lantern!" Dubbilex shouted as he lunged away from Desmond.
Green Lanterns faced their fears. Lanterns did what was right even if they didn't want to; even if it hurt them in the end. Arley felt her heart clench; Wally West had promised to never leave her— abandon her —and he didn't lie, not to her.
He loved her.
"Lantern!" Superboy tackled Desmond away from Dubbilex.
She loved him; he was what she dreamed about. When Psimon would try to break through her mental defenses he was her safe haven.
"Get your head in the game!"
Arley was responsible for Superboy and Dubbilex, she was the hero out of them, she had to keep them away from the Light. Even if it meant at her own heart's expense.
"Superboy, Dubbilex-I have a plan!" Dubbilex rushed over to Arley and Superboy— after having beat Desmond away, leaving the hulking blue monster momentarily dazed on the lobbies marble flooring —leapt over to her.
"What's the plan?" Dubbilex asked, Arley looked to Superboy,
"Can you protect us-Dubbilex and me from being crushed to death?" She asked quickly, her eyes continuously darting to Desmond; she forced herself not to look at the door. The unmoving, still closed glass doors.
Superboys' brows knitted together, "Excuse me?"
Arley looked to Dubbilex,
"Use your powers to blow out the columns, the building will crush Desmond, if Supes here can protect us from the debris we can make run to the sewers, DC has the trains under surveillance for terrorists but the League-the Light," Arley corrected in a rush. While Arley had a vague idea of who wasn't a Cadmus clone or a double agent for the Light, neither she nor Dubbilex trely knew just how deep the Lights hooks were sunk into the League, "Uses the sewers to get around when they need to so there's no cameras there."
"And what if I can't protect you two?" Superboy snapped, "What then?"
Arley wasn't sure if the clone was asking what would happen to himself literally— in the sense of what was he supposed to do in order to avoid the Light should she and Dubbilex die —or just metaphorically, but nonetheless, as Desmond began to get to his feet, Arley grabbed the clones shoulders.
"Then you go to Smallville, okay?" Kryptonian DNA was impossible to perfectly clone, Batman might be compromised but Superman wouldn't be. Superboy would be safe, "But that won't be necessary because I believe in you okay?"
Desmond took two heavy steps closer to them and Arley fisted the 'S' on Superboys chest, pulling him and Dubbilex closer to her, Arley brought them down into a crouch, and then suddenly, as Dubbilex's horns started to glow, Cadmus Labs came crashing down.
…
Three hundred and eighty four thousand and four hundred miles above Earth— halfway between the Earth and the moon —aboard the Justice Leagues orbiting headquarters, the Watchtower, the Flash, Batman and Black Canary all watched in horror as three figures, a blue monster with horns, a young version of Superman and a girl they had all believed to be long dead, emerged from the rubble of Cadmus labs.
"No way," Barry Allen breathed, he looked at the Watchtowers monitor with a quivering lip, when Fire, one of the League's newest members, had told him and Batman that there was an alert labeled Cadmus Labs he'd thought his nephew or one of the boys had broke into the DC laboratory as it was almost the three year anniversary of Arley's disappearance, but he hadn't expected this.
He could have never expected this.
"Computer zoom in," Canary said, she stood from her seat as the computer did so, the three faces emerging from the rubble were enlarged and Dinah Lance-Queen braced herself against the table. Dinah was sure— though the girl was covered in plaster and there was a thick ropey scar running from the corner of her mouth, stopping where her cheekbone was —that the girl emerging from the rubble was Arley Gluck.
Dinah's head snapped in Batman's direction, her eyes aflame; the video was new, taken only a handful of minutes ago.
"You said she wasn't there-you said you looked for her!"
When Arley had disappeared and Batman had claimed she'd run away— far from Earth —Dinah hadn't spoken up because she trusted Batman and it wasn't like Arley hadn't run away before; when Hal had first asked Dinah to start treating Arley as a patient Dinah had been given the young girls file and over the course of Arley's time in foster care the girl had run away a dozen times only to come back or be returned a short time later.
She'd thought this was just like all those other times.
"I did," Batman snapped, his brows knitted together, he could vaguely remember searching Cadmus Labs for the youngest Lantern, "I-I did."
"Really 'cause you don't seem so sure," Barry snapped back in reply.
"Bruce," Barry looked at the cowled man, Batman let out a snarled growl from the back of his throat at the usage of his other name but Barry ignored it, "Obviously something happened between then and now because that's Arley in the video!"
Batman's fingers curled into a fist, his lips pressed against each other and for a moment all the man did was look at the stilled video frame. At the dirty and scared image of Arley Gluck.
He'd searched for her; he had.
"We should go," Batman said, "We don't want to lose her now."
Notes: AND THE BALL IS ROLLING FOLKS! So I know the chapter's a day early but I have a whole bunch of stuff going on tommrow so, I hope you guys enjoy! If you liked the chapter please leave me a comment down below, it'd mean the world to me!