"You can't just kee-" The person speaking was interrupted by a coughing fit and his voice was a raspy mess, "Keep me here…"

"It's for your own good, Core."

"Says who?"

"I do."

"Then I think your view of "good" is a little bit skewed, don't you think?"

"What are we going to do?" Wally paced the floor, only barely remembering not to burn a hole in the floor with his speed, "Two weeks, Robbie. It's been two weeks."

"I know, I know!" Robin had a hand on his chin and his eyebrows furrowed. The others just knew he had his eyes narrowed at the ground under his sunglasses and his brain was working a mile a minute.

"Do you know where they could be holding Core?" Superboy spoke up from where he was tense on the couch, blue eyes piercing.

"Well, kind of. There's, like, seven different places he could be…"

"Then, let's narrow those down," Artemis said, motioning for Kaldur to hand he a pen and paper. "List 'em."

"Well, there's one here in Metropolis, one in Gotham, another just a mile out in the desert, one in fucking space, there's one around Superman's place of solitude or whatever, and two in New York," Robin shook his head. "And those are just the ones he might be in. The League has over fifty bases. Core could be anywhere, in any country."

"Shit," Wally rubbed his face, staring at the ground. "Okay, where do you think the JL could take him in a short amount of time?"

"I'd assume anywhere by now," Kaldur spoke up. "Batman seems like the type of man to make someone disappear fast."

Superboy clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth, "What if… What if we went near the bases close by?" He looked over at Robin, ignoring M'Gann, who was staring at him from her spot on the couch. "I know his heartbeat, I'd be able to see if he's near by hearing it."

M'Gann perked up, "Yeah! That sounds like a great idea! Robin?"

"It could work…" The Boy Wonder tapped his chin in thought, "What the hell, it's our best bet."

"Stop," Superboy's sudden order had everyone freezing. They were standing outside of a warehouse in Gotham, a place a bit away from the actual people. The super was staring at a window at the top and he seemed to straighten and tilt his head at something.

He thought he saw Core tapping the glass.

"He's here," Superboy walked forward, frowning a bit. "There's no one inside. We can go in."

"We must be silent," Kaldur nodded. He turned to Robin, "There will be no disappearing on your own. We must stay together and get Core and leave immediately."

Robin nodded, face serious, "Yeah, okay. You got it."

They went inside and followed Superboy up some flights of stairs. Taking in their surroundings, they noticed that part of the warehouse looked abandoned, like no one had been living in their. It was clean, almost too clean, like someone had just came in and decorated, only to leave later. There was a thin layer of dust on some furniture and some scattered paper on the floor.

After they made it up one more floor, they could hear soft coughing and moans of pain coming from behind a closed door. Superboy opened the door a crack after finding it unlocked. He immediately closed it, turning to his teammates, "You can't go in. He doesn't have his goggles on."

M'Gann frowned and went to say something when Artemis nodded, "Okay. Go in and make sure he has them on before we take him home."

The clone nodded and entered the room, closing the door softly behind him. The room was nicer than the downstairs, a place fit for kings, really. It was clean and wonderful looking and sad and lonely… There were papers scattered and books ripped at the spine and a cup with water spilt on the floor next to a vase.

He went over to the nineteen year-old when he started waking up and quickly covered his eyes with a hand. "Core," He whispered quietly when he knew the other was fully awake.

"...Baby Blue?" Core's voice was equally soft and he relaxed under the clone's touch, completely trusting him not to crush him, "What are you doing here?"

"Getting you out."

"But… Wait, how'd you know I was here?"

"We searched the other places you could be," The super answered, reaching his hand to a table to grab Core's goggles. "Here," He placed them in the other's open hand. "Your goggles are off. I'm going to turn around so you can put them on, okay?"

There was a moment of silence before Core replied, "Alright. Turn around. Did you say 'we'? As in, your team?"

Superboy nodded and turned around. He turned back when there was a tap on his shoulder. Core was sitting up with the goggles firmly back in place and his grin was present on his lips. His face was pale and his smile a little strange but the clone was happy to see him up and not lying down looking like he was dead. "We were worried for you. You ready?"

"Ready," The nineteen year-old got up and nearly stumbled. "Woah, haven't really stood up all this time."

Superboy frowned. He had so many questions to ask but knew this wasn't the time or place. He needed to get his friend home before the League knew they had broken in. "Here," He turned around and crouched in front of the other. "Get on my back and I'll get you out of here."

Core didn't say anything but the super soon felt the other climb on his back. "Giddy up," There was a chuckle in his voice and the nineteen year-old patted the clone's shoulder. "Let's get out of here."

The whole YJ team was in the living room, watching TV. They were glad to have Core back with them and kept a close eye on the black-haired man. He seemed fine but, occasionally, he would cough and sniffle, as if he was sick. It was mentioned before in passing that there was something wrong with him and Core even said so himself to Superboy but he seemed as energetic as ever. They just couldn't see what was wrong.

"Dude, Wally, can you get me some blueberries?" Core asked from where he was on the couch leaning on Superboy's shoulder. He seemed exhausted now and his face was a bit pale but better than before. "They wouldn't let me have some at the warehouse."

"Yeah, 'course," The speedster zoomed off before coming back with the desired item. "Guys, let's watch Star Wars! I bet Supey hasn't seen it!"

"What's Star Wars?" Both Superboy and Core said at the same time.

The team gaped at them. "Okay, we're watching it!" Robin declared.