Chapter Twenty-two
"Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from but a place you are wanted."
It had been two days since Arley had woken up from her nearly two week long coma and Hal Jordan was going to lose his goddamn mind because Arley— his partner, his daughter —had locked herself away in the room she shared with her team for nearly the entirety of the time she'd been awake.
Hal rested his head against the wall right outside of Arley and her team's bedroom, his eyes shut. The only time Arley hadn't been in the room since she'd woken up was when she had torn both Bruce and Dick new ones.
With her hair still wet and now doing baggy clothing instead of the hospital dress she'd been changed into when she'd first arrived at the Tower, Arley had stormed into the Teen Titans living room with a rage in her eyes that made Hal's heart leap into his throat.
Manhunter's niece walked behind Arley, her hands nervously wringing the hem of her shirt. Both Wally and Superboy stood at the sight of Arley while Artemis who had been talking to Cyborg and Dubblix to Raven both just turned, curious and half used expressions taking over their faces.
"What the fuck Bruce!" Arley snapped.
"Arley," Bats said. He'd been whispering to Dick about something; some kid in Gotham named Tom or whatever, Hal didn't care. How could he when his own kid was hurting?
Did she hate him? Did she blame him for not rescuing her sooner? For allowing her to be brutally tortured for years while he zoomed around the cosmos knowing she wasn't anywhere out there?
"Where the fuck is my shit you fuckwad!" Superboy let out a chortle while Dick went to step in front of his adoptive father.
"Arley—"
"—Shut up Bird brain, I don't give a shit about what you have to say, I was asking tall, dark and incompetent," Arley said scathingly. Hal watched as Dicks head jerked back, almost as if Arley had actually hit him. "Where are my guns?"
"You know as well as anyone I don't like guns," Bruce replied.
"I don't give a shit what you like or don't, you don't take my shit," Arley snarled, "I want them back."
"No," Bruce said. It was like a dangerous game of tennis; watching the two go back and forth, waiting for the first swing. And while Hal was worried Arley would swing on Bruce he wasn't worried for Arley. No, Hal was worried for what he and Guy and John would all do the moment Bruce grabbed Arley so as not to allow her to hit him.
He'd probably kill Bruce; accidently of course but the moment Kyle had contacted Hal, the pilot had made a promise to the cosmos.
Nothing— nobody —was ever touching his kid again.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me Arley, no. I won't allow—"
"—No but you'll allow me to rot in a cell for three years?" Arley snapped, "You'll allow that but you won't allow me something to defend myself if push comes to shove." Her arms crossed over her chest. "Wow Bruce, you know, I know Klarion's dead and all, but are you sure Savage still isn't riding front seat up there?"
"That's enough Arley," Dick bit back, stepping back into the conversation. He took a deep breath in through his nose and held it as he squared his shoulders. "You're not getting your guns back while you're in the Tower. But," Dicks tone changed. It was soft and promising. "You're also safe here, you don't have to worry about defending yourself."
Hal saw Arley's face twist, he saw the light— the fire in her eyes —flicker off then back alive, brighter than before.
Arley stepped closer, "When the Light comes Dickie, because they will, and Savage or one of his men kill me because all I have to protect myself in this stupid little playhouse of yours is a knife, I hope your fucking there at my funeral to lower me into the ground. One final let down from you, you know? I mean, it's what you're good at after all, Boy Wonder. Isn't it?"
Dick looked gutted but Arley didn't even pause to care about Dicks demeanor as she spun and left. Once again, she didn't look back.
"Hey." Hal opened one eye and half expected to see Guy or John or Kilowog; almost all of whom were getting stuff for Arley. Guy was getting her favorite foods together in a hope to lure her out of the room, while John was on Oa getting any and all pictures they all, and Katma had of Arley in hopes to remind her that they were there for her, while Kilowog was somewhere in the Tower.
He wouldn't let Arley see him shake, not when they all knew she needed support.
But instead Hal saw Superboys standing several feet away. He had a bowl of oatmeal for Arley; he and the others had been bringing her food the past two days so that she wouldn't have to leave the room until she was ready.
Not that she was really eating any of it.
Superboy and Dubbilex had said that she hadn't really eaten since her escape anyway; that the portions she was eating now was her usual amount. They claimed that Arley ate as little as she needed to but just because she was eating her usual amount didn't mean Hal wasn't worried.
Arley was his kid and she was hurting in so many different ways.
"Hey kid," Hal smiled. He liked Superboy, not as much as he liked Wally— Wally was like family, Hal had watched him grow alongside Arley; even before they were together where you could find one you could usually find the other —but Superboy had helped Arley escape. He'd helped keep her alive and protected her— watched her back —when Hal couldn't.
He would forever be grateful.
"Sitting like that can't be good for your back," Superboy said.
"You calling me old?" Hal joked. Superboy didn't respond as he took a seat next to Hal, he just smiled. "She hates me, doesn't she?" Hal asked a moment later. "She should, I-this is my fault."
"No," Superboy denied automatically, "It's not."
"Yes it is. If I had just told Bats to suck it up that day, Wonton was trying to boot out the sun; she'd have been safe."
"Hal, it's not your fault. Savage wanted a Lantern anyway and Arley, she was a kid—"
"—She is a kid. You all are." Superboy set Arley's breakfast to the side.
"Hal," he said again, his tone firmer, "She doesn't hate you."
"She won't talk to me. She won't look at any of us. She hates us, blames me for what happened, doesn't she?"
"No she doesn't," Superboy swore, "She-all Arley ever spoke about was how you're her dad and the Corps is her family and if push came to shove and something happened to her then me and Megs and Lex, we were to only trust you."
Hal felt himself warm at that; that no matter what had happened to her— that even after they had left her in the hands of the Light for years —Arley trusted him and the others to look after the people she cared about.
"Then why won't she let us in?"
Hal watched as Superboys fists clenched and her eyes narrowed at the patch of carpet in front of him.
"We, we have a mental link M'gann sets up, it allows us to do a lot more than just talk during battles. We can feel each other's feelings. Arley could feel my arm snap. I-we all, could feel her."
"With the robot?"
Superboy shook his head, "I mean yeah," he conceded "But I'm talking about when it was only Speedy. Arley was sure the other sidekicks were taken trying to get to her and when she realized they weren't-that they had never even looked for her—" Hals brows shot up because he knew they all had, he knew that Dick and Wally never given up on searching for her, but he kept quite. "—Something in her snapped. We all felt it. She's just hurt. But," Superboy said with promise in his voice, "She'll open up to you sooner than later."
"You sound so sure."
"Have you met Arley? She loves her family. When she realizes she's hurting you guys she'll start to open up, whether or not she's ready to."
"That's not healthy for her," Hal objected, "She shouldn't feel forced to open up before she's ready, I don't want her hurting anymore at anyone's expense."
Superboy just smiled. He didn't reply. He just grabbed Arley's breakfast and stood; Hal's heart leapt into his throat when Superboy opened the door and he saw a shadow next to the door.
She'd been listening.
….
Superboy turned to Arley, brow quirked up as he handed her the bowl of half cold oatmeal.
"He cares about you."
"He cares about the girl he lost," Arley whispered, her hands shaking as she took the bowl. She'd heard everything Hal had said and her heart twisted nearly in two inside of her.
If she went out there and bared who she was to Hal— unworthy of the ring, nothing more than a weapon the universe had forged to beat back it's enemies; the remnants of the girl that Savage had torn apart limb —and he shirked away from her, her heart would do far more than just break.
His rejection would destroy her.
"Hey," Superboy said, moving with her so that he was still in front of her. "You're the one he lost."
"No I'm not," Arley said easily. "I'm different now. I'm not her." Sportsmaster was right , danced on the top of Arley's tongue.
"I don't think he cares that you've changed, Arley he's happy you're back."
"For how long?" Arley hissed, "How long will he be happy I'm back and not the girl he lost, huh? They all want that kid back-I'll never be her again Supes and when they realize that, they'll fucking leave. It's what people do best," Arley said, brushing past the clone and taking her oatmeal to the far side of the bed.
Maybe if windows didn't make Arley's skin itch— anyone with half way decent aim could fire a shot into the room and hit any one of them —she'd sit by the one she and the others had caked in newspaper.
Whoever Dick had gotten to design the Tower had forgotten all about curtains.
Bastards.
"Where is this all coming from?" Superboy asked, he knelt down next to Arley as she began to stir her breakfast, "Arley you love Hal, he's your dad. You had faith in him when you didn't have faith in those shit heads out there."
"And that was before," Arley snapped.
"Before what?" Arley just pressed her lips together and focused on the cold, gross looking oatmeal in her lap. "Arley," Superboy said softer. "I know I'm not Lex but you can tell me, talk to me."
"It won't change anything," Arley hissed back, "Talking won't fix me."
"You don't need to be fixed!"
Yes , Arley thought, Yes I do .
Superboy hadn't known her before, he only knew her angry and disfigured and covered in blood. If he had known the girl before the way Hal and the others did he'd prefer her too.
" Do you think," Sportsmaster had once asked, "That if you ever get out of here they'll still want you? There's lines girly, on how broken you can be before everyone has to recognize you're unsalvageable. You realize that right? That no matter what, here or there, no one will want you."
Arley tossed her oatmeal to the side and stood before stomping her way into the bathroom, she locked the door behind her after having slammed it shut.
Tears started to bubble up in the corners of her eyes.
The sight of her scar in her reflection caused Arley's fist to clench automatically.
"You're damaged goods," Kent Nelson had said. "You're damaged goods." Repeated in the back of her mind.
Her fist wound back.
"You're damaged goods."
Everyone wanted her back.
The little girl from the nightmare flashed at the forefront of Arley's mind. A sob broke through her lips.
"Arley, are you okay?" Superboy asked on the other side of the door. If Arley was focused on anything other than the fact her heart felt as if it were being split into two then she would have noticed how Superboy had sounded so concerned.
Arley didn't even focus on the pain radiating from her knuckles as she hit the mirror. All she could focus on was her scar.
A scar that belonged to her. That dead girl hadn't had a scar across her face. The dead girl hadn't had cigar burns necks to her spine; sure she'd had a couple of cigarette burns on her arms and hand from one of her short lived foster homes but she hadn't had burn marks that almost looked like a second spine.
She hadn't had the scar on abdomen from when Sportsmaster had torn her open.
She hadn't been broken like her.
Because she'd died.
The bathroom door jerked open as Superboys shouldered his way inside, his eyes went wide at the sight of the shattered glass and blood. "Arley, what the hell!"
He sounded so worried for her.
A girl that didn't deserve it.
Arley couldn't breathe. Everything hurt. Living hurt. Nabu had been wrong, nothing got better, it never would and why would it?
Arley stepped further into the bathroom, away from Superboy as he took a step closer to her; his face twisted and he turned his head,
"Hal!" He called out.
She was a dead girl walking. The Corps of the Lantern who had gone into Cadmus labs, never to come out.
Hal appeared over Superboy's shoulder and just like the Man of Steel's clone, his face twisted in anguish at the sight of Arley.
Black dots danced across Arley's vision.
Her head hurt.
"Get out," Arley snapped. Hal wasn't there for her. Having him stand there, like he was waiting on her to change back into someone who was long gone hurt. "Get the hell out!"
"Kid—"
"—No!" Arley used her uninjured hand to wipe the test away as she took another step back, only for whatever else she had planned on saying to be cut off as she fell backwards into the bathroom tub and everything quickly went black.
The last thing Arley remembered before she was Sept under into unconsciousness— besides Superboy swearing loudly —was Hal.
He had her hand in his.
It was warm.
"It's gonna be okay kid, it's gonna be okay. I promise. I got you."
…
Arley was in the hospital wing again. Wally West, standing in the hallways outside the room, found himself tapping his forefinger against the crook of his elbow a mile a minute.
Except for her initial awakening Arley hadn't spoken to him. She hadn't even looked at him, and while she couldn't do that— or even look at anyone else, truth be told —because she'd locked herself away in her room the fact of the matter was, she wasn't okay.
Hal, after he'd carried her out of her room on a glowing green stretcher, had said she'd punched her mirror.
Anyone with eyes could see the blotchiness of Arley's face and know she had been crying before her fall.
"Kal," Wally breathed at the Atlantean when he and Dick turned the corner and entered the hospital rooms hallways. "Dick."
"How is she?" Kaldur asked, his face tight with worry. Wally turned to peer into the room and saw Hal and Kilowog on two opposite sides of Arley's bed, the pair of them holding both of her hands.
"She'll be okay," Wally said; though it was more a reaffirming affirmation to tell himself than a fact for both Kaldur and Dick to know.
Because Arley might not be okay, Wally worried. She might never be even close to okay again, and while it was understandable, something in Wally twisted at the thought of Arley, thirty years down the line, still waking up in a cold sweat because she thought Savage or Sportsmaster were coming to get her.
He'd kill them.
Wally didn't do much as blink as the urge to rip both men apart rolled over him. He'd never been like Dick or Roy, both of whom ran incredibly hot when angry— in an act of vengeance for both Jason and Barbra, Dick had killed the Joker; Bruce had needed to revive the homicidal clown after arriving too late to save his arch nemesis —but Wally also knew when it came to Arley it was different.
That he was different; when it came to her Wally knew he was quick to throw out the rule book because for her, he'd do anything.
He loved Arley, he had fallen in love with her before he'd truly known what love was and he knew it wouldn't matter how many years passed because he would always be in love with her.
Wally continued to look into the room; he eyed the bandage now wrapped around the Lanterns hand. He took notice that one side of her hair was longer than the other and how though the line had already begun to form between her brows, alseep— unconscious or otherwise —how at peace Arley looked.
That was what Wally wanted for her. After everything she'd gone through all Wally wanted for her was a life of peace.
Even— Wally's hand fisted the front of his shirt, over his heart —if he wasn't in it.
She was as much a part of him as the speed he'd grown to live with was and perhaps it could live without his powers— perhaps he had lived years without her by his side —but it wouldn't be a fulfilling life; one he woke up everyday excited to live.
The past few years without Arley had been very much just like that. But if that was what Arley needed to find peace— if it was what Arley wanted —Wally would live that kind of life, for the rest of his life.
He'd deserve it after all.
"I think we should get Roy," Kaldur said suddenly, causing Wally's head to snap away from the doors window, to his gilled friend.
"He hadn't left Roy's side since Oliver moved him to Star City."
"I meant the original Roy Harper," Kaldur clarified. "Roy Harper woke up with seven years of his life missing. Roy-the one we all grew up knowing, he says he's angry."
"You're telling me you wouldn't be?" Dick asked rhetorically.
"Of course I would be, I just think that if anyone can meet Arley where she's at, it's the original Roy Harper."
Wally nodded.
"The only thing is," Dick said thoughtfully, "Do you really think Oliver and Roy will let us take Roy on a field trip?"
"Who cares," Wally scoffed, his chest warm and his eyes flickering back to Arley. "This is for Arley. Either they get on board or they get out of the way."
Dicks brow quirked up at the heat in Wally's voice; a smirk tugged on the corners of his lips.
"Okay, so we're doing this?" Kaldur asked, almost excitedly. He leaned forward on the balls of his feets. Wally couldn't help but smile at his friend.
"Yeah, we are," Dick replied. "We can take the T-car."
"Okay," Wally nodded, though unlike either Kaldur or Dick, Wally didn't take a step forward. He hesitated; his eyes locked onto Arleys unconscious figure.
She would be okay.
He'd make sure of that.
…
When she woke up, once more staring a familiar popcorn ceiling, Arley couldn't help but note three different things all at once.
The first was how much her head hurt. Embarrassment bloomed across her face as she remembered knocking herself out.
Idiot , she thought to herself.
The second was how her hand didn't hurt. She could feel not just the bandage wrapped tightly around her hand but something else.
That something else was the third thing Arley quickly noted.
Hands. The third thing Arley took no time in noticing was that two larger hands— both calloused and warm —enveloped not just her injured hand but both of her hands.
"Hey you're up." Arley knew that voice. She jerked both her hands out from the ones they were under. "Kid," Hal said almost woundedly.
"Don't call me that," Arley hissed as she started to sit up in bed; that when she noticed it wasn't just Hal and Kilowog in the room with her but the others as well; John and Katma and Guy.
They were all there, waiting for her to wake up. Waiting to see if she was okay.
They cared.
For now.
Arley felt her bottom lip tremble.
"I'm awake," Arley said roughly, "You can all go now."
"Arley," Katma started softly only for Arley to advert her eyes and focus on the knitted blanket that had once more been placed on her.
After Arley had taken that first shower, M'gann had told her how John had knitted it years ago. John had picked up knitting from Katma and this was his welcome home present for the girl that had died in the Cadmus cell.
"Get out!" Arley snapped, louder, her hands fisted in front of herself, "Just get out! All of you! Just—" whatever else Arley had planned on saying caught itself midway up her throat at the sight of Wally West standing in the hospital room's doorway.
"You're up," Wally said softly. He smiled at her and Arley— hearing her own heart rate pick up at the sight of the smile via the monitors she'd been once more hooked up to —turned her head away from the speedster.
His smile could still power cities.
"Arley," Wally said as he stepped into the room and Arley brought the knitted blanket up to her chest at the sound of her voice falling from his lips. She ignored how her traitorous heart spiked on the monitor. "We brought someone to see you."
She didn't answer. Arley didn't even turn until she heard Hal suck in a sharp breath of air through his teeth.
"Roy?" The original Roy Harper stood next to Wally. He was in a pair of sweatpants and a green sweater; one of the arms on the top had already been hemmed in order to accommodate his missing arm.
He looked so— painfully —young.
His hair was shaggier; he had bangs. He looked the same way Arley could remember him looking years ago, back when they'd first met and she had flipped him through Oliver's coffee table.
It was all just another reminder that no one had come for her. She hadn't been worth the saving.
"Green Lantern," Roy nodded, "Hey."
"Hi." It was quiet and just as Arley had looked at Roy, picking out everything that she could not only remember but what she knew had changed, she knew he was doing the same to her.
"Roy," Hal said, Arley didn't look at him when he spoke, but she knew everyone else did. "Not that I'm not happy to see you out and about, but what are you doing here?"
"To talk to Greenie, erm-Green Lantern," Roy said almost awkwardly. Arley couldn't help but chortle; she could remember when Oliver had introduced both her and Hal to Roy.
"So what, you're both called Green Lanterns?" Roy asked over dinner.
"Yeah," Arley nodded. She'd been about thirteen at the time and far more comfortable around people Hal introduced her to than she'd been several years ago.
"That's stupid," Roy said, grabbing a slice of pizza from the box; he seemed to easily ignore Oliver's chastising, "There's three of you, how do you know who anyone's talking to?"
"We call Guy by his name," Hal laughed. "And Guy calls Arley here Nightlight so when I give an order or something to Green Lanterns we all know I'm not talking to myself."
"Same."
"But what about Batman? And Ollie, how do you know when they're talking to you?"
"Ollie calls me kid and Bats?" Arley cocked her head to the side, "Well you haven't worked with him yet but he doesn't super talk so there's no real mixup."
"And what am I supposed to call you?" Roy wondered, "Green Lantern and Green Lantern?"
Arley blinked, "Kind of."
"That's stupid, I'm calling you something else."
"Excuse me!"
"I don't know about that," Hal said, "Arley—"
"—I want to talk to Roy," Arley said, staring at the original Roy Harper.
"Oh."
Arley bent her knees so that they were brought to her chest and motioned to the part of the bed that they had been in.
"Here," she said, "You can sit. Or you can sit in a chair or something."
"Thanks," Roy smiled. It wasn't a large toothy smile but it was a smile that made Arley smile back because of its reassuring nature.
"Okay then," John said. Arley pointedly looked farther away from him, "Come on-we'll be in the hall if you need anything Arley."
Arley didn't respond; she didn't bother looking back up, away from the floor tile she had zeroed in on until everyone had left and the door had clicked shut, leaving her and Roy alone.
He sat in the chair Hal had been in.
"Hi," Arley said again.
"Hey." It was quiet and both former heroes looked away from one another after a moment; Arley began picking at the loose strands of wool while Roy's nails scratched against the armrest of the chair he'd say in.
"Thank you," Roy said quietly a moment later. Arley's eyes flew back to him, "You know, for saving me."
"It was nothing," Arley said automatically.
"Why?" Roy scoffed, his voice suddenly severe, "Cause you thought it was the other guy you were saving?"
Arley's hand clenched around the fabric of the blanket.
This was why she had flipped him into Oliver's coffee table all those years ago.
"Because they had you, dumbass," Arley hissed back, "Maybe I expected to find someone I'd met before but even if I'd never met a Roy Harper, the minute I heard the Light had you me and the others would've come."
"Why?"
"Because no one deserves to be left in the Lights hands."
"And left I fucking was," Roy hissed, "You met me like once before I was taken and the other sidekicks, I don't blame any you for leaving me for seven years. But Ollie? How—"
"—Dose he go on living life not noticing that Roy isn't you?"
"Yes!"
Arley shrugged, "The Light's good at what they do."
"Don't tell me you're making excuses for him," Roy snapped.
"Of course not. It's iust—" Arley paused unsure of what to say because the thing was At least someone had taken his place.
At least Oliver could point to Roy's clone and point out how up until a few years ago human cloning hadn't been on anyone's mind as a possibility so when he'd found Roy the thought he wasn't really Roy would've been an odd thought to have crossed his mind.
No one had taken her place.
No one had slipped into an Arley-shaped mold and taken her place, she'd just been replaced and to Arley, if a clone had lived her life the past few years, no one being the wiser she could live with that.
But no one had.
No one had cared and people that did, they wouldn't want her now. They had set off looking for a dead girl and we're refusing to acknowledge it.
"—Just what?" Roy asked heatedly.
"It's just nothing," Arley said instead.
"No! Come on, tell me what you're thinking!"
"Drop it, Roy."
"No!"
"Jesus Christ you're fucking annoying!"
"Why cause I'm a kid?" Roy snapped. He got to his feet and Arley got to her knees in the bed. "Newsflash Green Lantern—" Arley couldn't help but snap at him not to call her that, not that she was heard, "—I was frozen for seven years! My arm was cut off to—"
"—Make a clone! Yes, I know but guess what asshole Oliver didn't stop searching for that clone until he found it! Maybe he's an asshole for not noticing I don't know but at least he fucking searched!" Arley had started to shout, "Savage could have done anything to make it understandable to why a ring wouldn't work for my clone! He could have cut off both arms! He could have put the clone in a coma and have amnesia, there's a million things he could have done but didn't! And you want to know why asshole?" Arley didn't bother to wait to hear Roy's answer, "Because no one cared! No one looked! That's what I'm thinking! I'm thinking you're fucking lucky so shut the fuck up and stop bitching to me about how angry you are at Ollie because at least you had someone willing to burn shit up for you."
Arley's breathing was heavy at the end of her rant. Her head was starting to pound so much so that she shut her eyes tightly as she fell back against the pillows she woken up to propped up around her.
Arley squinted at Roy, "No one out there cared for fucking years, and anyone that did, they aren't here for me. Oliver, when he was looking for you, was becoming a problem for the Light. That's how much he cared."
"And yet I still suffered." Arley smiled wryly at the— technically —younger boy.
"Yeah well a bastard I know told me once that some of us are made to."
"Bullshit," Roy snarled. Arley hummed in agreement as she held her head in her hands. "I—I'll get you something for that."
Arley, with her eyes still closed, turned her head in Roy's direction and attempted a smile; she knew it had to have fallen flat because she heard Roy's knee hitting his chair as he got up.
"You good?" Arley wondered if this was what feeling bludgeoned was like. Her head was killing her.
Pounding and pounding to the beat of her heart.
"Yeah," Roy replied; Arley could hear him shuffling around drawers in the room, looking for some kind of painkiller. "Hey Lantern?"
Arley gut churned at the title, "What?"
"Why don't you want me calling you that? I mean last time we met, you flipped me over a table for not calling you Green Lantern."
Arley felt her lips pressed together as she began to rock herself in the bed, her tongue darted out to wet her lips.
"Probably because back then I was a Green Lantern," Arley said softly, "And now I'm not. I'll never be one again. The ring, if I ever power it up, I won't be able to use it."
"Oh." Arley bit the inside of cheek as she lowered her hands and looked at Roy.
"Don't feel bad, it's just a fact of life, you don't go through what I did in that cell and not come out the other side someone else."
"But you're still you."
"I'm really not Roy," Arley argued as the former archer grabbed a bottle from a bottom drawer and held it up to the light so that he could read the label. "Besides," she added half a second later, "What would you know, we only met like once or twice before you got snatched. How would you know me?"
"Because I watched you on television," Roy answered handing Arley the painkillers. "Before Ollie adopted me I used to watch you and the other Lantern on television and you-you probably don't remember it but you went into a burning building for a kid once."
Arley didn't by why would she, over the years she had her ring she'd gone into burning buildings for people she didn't know.
"Anyway I remember everyone on television screaming at you to come back, that the building was going to come down and it did but you still walked out of the wreckage with the old lady you went in to save."
That Arley remembered. She'd been eleven and she hadn't hesitated in pulling away from the Fire Captain who'd told her that it was too dangerous— that the building was coming down —to go back in for the old woman who owned the building.
But it was her job to save people, even at the cost of her own life so she'd ignored older man. She ignored the screaming on-looker and Hal, who had called out for her to wait for him because she knew she couldn't waste a single second.
Savage had been right, Lanterns were all brawn and no brain.
She'd leapt without looking. Acted with her heart and gut rather than her brain.
"What dose any of that have to do with who I am now?" Arley wondered.
"Because you did the same thing for me," Roy explained. He sat on the edge of the bed, "Ollie and other Roy, they told me when I woke up, that you almost died trying to save me. You're still risking your life to save people."
"That's different," Arley shook her head.
"How so?"
"Because—" Arley paused unsure of how to say that she was okay with dying. She'd always been okay with it in the sense that she wouldn't have been shocked to die years ago— Lanterns had short shelf lives; most didn't live past five years due to the danger they faced —but back at Yellowstone, part of her had wanted to.
Knowing she'd been so replaceable, knowing that the people she loved— the boy she loved —had moved on so easily, had crushed her to the point of indifference in the face of danger and death.
The girl that had walked into that burning building and the one who had been run through by a robotic arm were two fundamentally different girls.
"—Because it just is."
Roy didn't respond and for a moment the two of them just sat in silence.
"Roy looked." Roy said after a moment.
"What?"
"Not everyone just gave up on you. Roy-other Roy," Roy said awkwardly, "He looked for you. He-he said he found you a few times."
"What?" Arley leaned forward. Roy nodded.
"I asked what happened, about the Light, with you-with me and he told me everything."
"He found me?" Arley whispered.
"He said they always made him forgot but he never stopped looking until they made him a couple of months before you broke out."
Arley felt the room start to spin.
Even with his embedded Light programming Roy never stopped looking for her. He never gave up on her.
He hadn't just moved on left her behind.
Suddenly Arley's palms became sweaty.
"I didn't know that," Arley said softly.
"I figured. I just thought you should know, since you think no one looked for you."
Arley couldn't help but smile. This was the part of Roy the Light had taken to make his clone. The best part of him. She grabbed Roy's hand in hers.
"The minute I found out that there was even a chance that the Light had you, I never stopped. Maybe Ollie could've been better but you weren't left either."
"Thank you Greenie."
"It's Arley dumbass." She laughed and Roy shook his head.
"No, it's Greenie. Always has been, always will be-remember you told me when we met that Green Lanterns are the best in the universe. That you can put your mind to something and accomplish anything." Arley did remember that.
That was why she'd flipped him into Oliver's coffee table. They kept trying to one up each other and Roy had claimed that he could do anything she could— better even—when she took him by surprise and flipped him over her shoulder.
"See, I got the drop on you. Something you'll never be able to do to me."
"Greenie, you saved me when I couldn't save you or myself."
"I'm not that girl anymore Roy, too much has happened." She'd done too much. Too much has been done to her; Arley had suffered and that girl she had once been had paid the price for it.
Roy squeezed her hand; his baby blues bored into hers.
"Maybe so, but if anyone is strong enough to come back from all this, it's you Greenie. I know it is."
Arley squeezed his hand right back, just as tightly. Tears dotted the corners of her eyes. He sounded so sure; the same way someone might say the sky was blue or Lanterns light was green, Roy Harper sounded one-hundred percent, and completely sure that she would come back from the darkness that plagued her.
Nabu's promise of peace rang through Arleys memory. Maybe the conduit for Order wasn't lying. Maybe Roy was onto something and though Arley doubted them both— though Arley found it hard to believe; she was so sure the girl that had been brought to the cell had died in it —her body flooded with warmth.
"Thank you."
"No problem Greenie." And Arley couldn't help but smile widely at the nickname she could so vividly remembered hating years ago.
…
Hal and the others had stayed true to Johns word and hadn't moved from the hallway, not even when Oliver and Roy's clone came storming forward, ready to bring the original Roy home.
Infact the five Lanterns— and Wally, Dick and Kaldur —had all made an impenetrable wall in order to keep the two archers out of the Titans Tower hospital room. At least they had until Roy had exited room with a smile on his face and light in his eyes that hadn't been there when he'd first stepped into the Tower.
"Ollie," Roy— the original —greeted, "Here to take me home?" There was no bite to his voice. No contrition or anger.
"Yeah, you need to rest Roy."
"I got enough rest the past seven years," was Roy's reply before he turned to the three former sidekicks. His eyes narrowed at Wally.
"I doubt he—" Roy's head motioned to his clone, "—Ever told you this but when I first met Greenie I thought she was cute."
"Oh?" Wally blinked. Hal put his fist in front of his mouth so as to hide the large, shit eating grin on his face.
"Do better or we'll see if you were a one off or if red heads are just really her type," Roy said hotly. Dick let out an ugly wheezing laugh in reaction to the Speedsters shocked face; Roy's clone's face turned a bright cherry red as the original Harper turned back to Hal and the other Lanterns. "Greenie asked that if you were all still out here to send you in."
"She wants to see us?" Guy asked excitedly. He was smiling, something Hal hadn't really seen on the red head since before he'd slipped into a come years ago.
"Yeah."
And whatever else happened in the hallway— if Wally ever said something back to either Roy Harper once he collected his barings —was lost, because at the one armed teens confirmation all five Lanterns seemed to stampede into the hospital room where Arley was sitting up in bed, holding the blanket John had knitted anxiously between her hands.
"Hey dad's." Arley looked at Katma. "Ma."
Hal did care that the others were there, tears bloomed to life in the corners of his eyes. Apparently neither did any of the other Lanterns because like him, they took were crying.
"Hey kid." Hal walked to the end of Arley's bed, he sat on the end of it. Kilowog was quick to sit in the chair he'd been sitting in before Roy had visited and while Katma sat next to Hal on the other side of the bed— and John behind her, both his hands on her shoulders —Guy sat in the chair Hal had claimed when she'd been knocked out.
"I'm sorry," Arley whispered. "Ever since I woke up, I've-I could've been better to you all."
"Don't," Hal shook his head, "We get it, you were angry at us—"
"—No!" Arley was quick to deny, "God no, I was scared."
"Of what?" Guy asked.
Arley brought the blanket up to her chest, like a shield of some sort. "I'm-I'm," Arley struggled to get out, "Not the same person I was when I was taken. I was scared that maybe you'd all see that and hate me."
"Kid," Kilowog was quick to say, his hand on her knee, "We could never."
"Even if the ring never works for me again?" Arley asked softly.
"Why wouldn't the ring work for you anymore? Arley, you're a Lantern. The youngest in history," Katma said, "There's no one in the universe with more willpower."
Hal frowned at Arley's flinch.
"Kid?"
"You're wrong Kat. I'm-in Yellowstone, when me, Supes and Lex all escaped and I found everyone had just moved on with life, I wanted to die. I was so ready to just give up." Hal felt the air escape his lungs. He felt his hands start to shake against his legs. "Savage and Sportsmaster and Kent, they all said it and they're right, I'm damaged goods—"
"—The hell you are!" Four other similar statements rang out over Hals, Arley just shrugged. It was obvious that she didn't believe that, that she truly thought she was damaged.
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, all I'm saying is I don't think the ring will work for me anymore," Arley said, "That's why I didn't want to see any of you. I didn't want you to expect the other girl and see me." Arley met Hal's eyes, "It's one thing to find out that the boys don't care, but if I came back and none of you wanted me anymore, that would kill me."
"Arley," Hal said, reaching across the bed and grabbing her hand, "You're our kid. No matter what, we'd never not want you. We love you. Always have, always will."
Hal was prepared for the sob that tore through Arley, what he wasn't prepared for though, was her tackling him into the tightest bare hug he had ever received from her.
Not that it was unwelcomed; Hal was quick to wrap his arms just as tightly around his kid, hugging her beck just as fiercely.
Hal's eyes fluttered shut.
She was home.
His daughter was home.
Notes: So I'm going to stop saying how many chapters left there are cause I keep breaking up what should be ome chapter in to multiple cause I like how I end them.
Anyway the chapter is neigh, let me know what you thought!!!
Anyway, until next time!