Yo!

I know I've been away. Thanksgiving, my other story that I decided to write... which was fun, by the way. You should check it out, CHAUFFEUR by me. It's about Jason Todd(not Teen Titans version) and the Bat Family. It's pretty cool.

I actually uploaded this two days ago, but then I had to discard of a recently deceased animal(no joke). It was very depressing, and I just didn't want to upload. But now, here's the continuation of SHADES OF SCARLET!

Chapter II

Coming To Terms

Red X was Dick Grayson.

He had Dick's face, every feature, perfect, exact. Only the slightly shorter hair, and colder eyes made him look different.

But other than that... Starfire especially seemed shell-shocked. Beast Boy was gaping, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Raven was shocked, but also confused, probably by the lack of surprise from Spider-Man.

But Blackfire was gazing at X as if he was the most amazing guy in the world.

"Good job," Hunter snarled, bringing them all back to reality. They looked back at him, remembering the buff killer that he was now. "But cheating death has always come naturally to you, X. My question is, why prolong the inevitable? For what? You have nothing."

X smiled, and it was a sly smile that displayed clearly his life as a rogue and a thief.

"Actually," he said, raising his hand. "I have this."

Nothing happened. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the familiar x to appear and wrap up Hunter. But nothing came out. X looked mildly annoyed, shaking his hand.

"This usually works."

Hunter began to laugh.

"I see that whatever that cure was, it took away all of your Zynothium," he chuckled. "Good... let's see how well you do without your crutch."

X stopped looking confused, and smiled savagely. It was odd to see those kinds of slightly evil grins on Dick's face.

"Sure," he said.

"Dick-, X, no," Spidey said, grabbing his arm. "He may have a new body, but he doesn't have any experience to back it up."

"I know," X said, trying to loosen Spidey's grip. "That's his crutch."

But then the choice was taken out of their hands when an alarm klaxon sounded. Hunter looked up.

"I fear this location has become compromised," he said. "I suggest you leave now if we want to meet again."

He turned to run. Spider-Man's spider sense tingled.

"I think he means to blow it up," he said lightly, and then, "MOVE!"

The Titans regrouped at Titans' Tower, and Peter was feeling more and more trepidation with every foot they covered.

When they finally got there, Dick and Victor were already in the designated war room, pulling up plans for buildings, rogue's galleries, and DNA matches.

"Hot damn," Vic said, staring at two almost perfect matches. "The sample is a 97.8 percent match to yours. That's so odd."

"Because it's usually a hundred percent or it's not," Peter explained, making the newcomers' presence known. Vic and Dick turned around, staring at X.

No words were spoken. The room was deathly silent. Dick slowly walked up to stand right in front of X, who stared him down. Dick removed his mask.

Starfire gasped audibly. The others too were stunned.

It was like seeing Dick looking into a mirror, with subtle differences. X had always seemed taller, but now the two young men stared eye to eye. They looked like twin brothers, with X being the more fun loving one who covered up his fears and Dick being the more serious one who couldn't hold secret fears. X could hitch a crooked smile on his face in an instant, while Dick always held his look that could turn into the Bat Glare. X's hair was shorter, but more in his face, while Dick's was longer and more groomed behind his ears.

"Well, this isn't awkward at all," X said, grinning slightly. "No tearful hugs?" Dick glared at him. And then he turned to Peter.

"There's a guy called the Scarlet Spider," he said shortly. "He's your clone."

Peter's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it.

"Again?" he asked. The other Titans stared at him, except for Raven, who already knew. "God da-,"

"He's armed with some sort of missile capable device," Dick went on, turning to the computer, drawing up some schematics. "He also has all of your abilities, up to and including your spider sense..."

"Whoa, wait, stop," X said, going over to Dick and grabbing his shoulder, forcing him to turn around. "Is that is? You find out who I am and I get nothing?"

"You get to keep the suit," Dick said with such chill that it would have made Batman blink. "Now let go of me."

"Hey, I'm not dead or going to be any time soon," X said, clearly getting upset. "So we need to talk about some stuff."

"You never felt the need before."

"That's because I knew I was going to die! Please, Dick, we need to talk!"

Dick shoved X aside, marching off to the hallway. If the door hadn't been automatic, he would have slammed it shut. X stared after him, along with everybody else. Peter sighed.

"I'll talk to him," he said. "'Scarlet Spider...'"

He felt Raven's concern on his mind, but encouragement as well.

Peter didn't bother knocking on Dick's door. He knew he wouldn't open it.

It opened with the familiar hiss. He walked in, seeing Dick leaning against his desk, his back to the door.

"Well, I gotta say," Peter said, walking up slowly, taking his mask off. "You're handling this whole cloning thing a lot better than I did when I was first cloned."

Dick snorted. His shoulder's hunched up as he did so.

"Hey, it's okay to flip out," Peter went on, not sure whether to put his hand on his shoulder or not. "I mean, there's a whole 'nuther you running around. But hey, at least it's only one."

Dick took a deep breath, and his voice shook.

"Only one?" he said softly, his voice definitely trembling. "Peter, I've been freakin' cloned... this is so much more than what I'm used to, even from Slade..."

Okay, Peter thought. It's time to stop the self-pity.

"Yeah, well so have I," he said, putting a little edge in his voice. "Three times. The first time it was a damaged DNA replica of my father which killed my adopted sister and became Carnage. The second time there was five clones. All of them died except for one, and she was a female clone. One of them was aged and mentally changed to believe he was my father... you're an orphan too, Dick, you know how that'd feel if you thought your father came back. So all in all, I'd say you got a pretty easy deal. Only one clone, and his life's greatest ambition was to steal."

He paused, allowing Dick to say something. He didn't, so Peter went on.

"Right now, every fiber of X's body tells him he's Richard Grayson. He's eaten everything, learned everything, fought everything, and experienced everything. Except he hasn't. He never has. Can you imagine what he's going through right now? If he had any time to think, he'd probably commit suicide. He's even loved Starfire like you have... but he hasn't. And she doesn't love him."

Peter was treading a dangerous line now. Every Titan had not agreed with Nightwing breaking up with Starfire, but out of respect for his reasons, which Peter could sympathize with, he had kept silent. Certainly now was not the time to bring that up.

"Don't think of him as your clone, your copy... he's done enough of that. You need to open up. I know this sounds crazy, but how about looking at it another way... He's your brother. And he needs you."

Dick still didn't say anything. But finally he turned around to face Peter. There was no expression in his face.

"I'll talk to him," he said. "Can you be there, help me out?"

Peter shook his head.

"I got my own bro to worry about," he said. "No, you're not coming with. You need to work this out with X."

He turned to leave, and paused at the door.

"You might want to talk about other names than 'X,'" he added, before closing the door.

Dick wasn't the only one with "sibling issues."

Raven looked from Starfire to Blackfire and back, still trying to gauge what was going through their minds. Her empathic powers told her that Starfire burned with hate, shame, and a sense of longing, while Blackfire was ice-cold, yet seemed to have a humbleness about her that wasn't there before.

And Raven sat in the middle, feeling like some perverse umpire in a game no one really understood, just played, or else lost.

The silence was getting unbearable. Raven wasn't about to break it.

"So," Blackfire started, speaking the word as if it cost her soul. "You and Robin."

"He is Nightwing now," Starfire said briskly. "And no. We are not 'the together.' Not anymore."

"Bummer," Blackfire said. They didn't look at each other. Raven still remained silent.

"What about you and Red X?" Star asked. Blackfire didn't look surprised at her sister's discernment.

"I thought I fell in love," Blackfire said, nonchalantly. "And then he got his looks back, and I knew for certain..."

Her voice trailed off, and Raven and Star were both shocked to see tears in her magenta eyes.

"Kory," she said, her voice choking. "Ever since... I returned... I've been so alone...if you had given me your love after you defeated me, I would have hated you, and the universe. But you did something far worse... you isolated me. You taught me through banishment how hate and selfishness destroy you. I blamed you for the longest time."

Starfire's eyes also glazed over with tears, but she was often on the verge of crying, ever since Dick broke up with her.

"Remember when we played as children in Myand'r's court? With the glurfkas, and the other animals? You were teaching me even then that love is more preferable to hate."

Star broke down entirely, flying over to Blackfire, embracing her tightly. Shockingly, Blackfire hugged her back. Raven felt like an intruder in the family joy, but felt relief at the same time.

This part of the battle was over.

In the back of her mind, she felt Peter calling to her. Taking her leave of the sisters, she glided silently out of the room.

Well, now, how 'bout dem apples?

BTW, I'd like to write another Bat Family story, but I want it to be a crossover with Code Geass. Now, since I've only read Geass 9-14(I think), I need some help on this one. Any fan of this particular Manga would be welcome to help. Thanks.