"Holds fast….stubborn….I cannot get through yet…"
"How long….Shadow Knight?"
"...soon. Break him again."
Red was vaguely aware of the voices as he came out of his slumber. The floor felt cooler and harder under his head and body. He was in pain- extreme pain; but he didn't alert his enemies he was awake.
"…We cannot risk internal bleeding," said one of the minions.
"Yes; he already bleeds from the head and chest; anymore and he will be useless," replied the Shadow Knight.
"I can break him just a little further. Trussstt me," the minion who he had fought.
"What about the other archer?"
"I have plans once we are done with him…"
The voices drifted as Red heard their ghastly footsteps fade away. Once he was sure they were gone, he allowed a breath out.
"Roy?" Came a soft whisper shortly after.
Red Arrow recognized his former mentor's voice. He used his one good arm to push himself into a sitting position. His back leaned heavily on the wall behind him.
Only then did he see G.A.'s face in a small window adjacent to his cell.
"Where are we," Red replied instead, glancing around the gray-walled prison cell he was in. He looked down at himself and found a bandage around his chest and left wrist. He put a hand to his head and felt a bandage there as well.
"They brought us to the backrooms after you passed out; I think they were afraid they were going to lose their body," Green Arrow frowned as Red Arrow fingered the bandage around his forehead.
"That's creepy," Red replied indifferently, trying to stand up.
He failed when a stab of pain came from his chest. Faltering, he fell back down on the floor.
"This is serious, Roy." Green Arrow's voice suddenly tensed. "You can't take them on again. I know you're mad at me but you have nothing to prove. I know what you can do-"
Red looked up with clenched teeth and narrowed eyes. "No, you don't know what I can do. You've never known." Here Red paused for a moment to get into a better sitting position.
"You just have this preconceived fictional notion of how everything is and how things will turn out."
Red remembered the after image then, and remembered how his opponent was unbelievably fast.
Green Arrow interrupted, "Roy-"
"That isn't my superhero name," Red hissed. "My friends call me that."
Ever since he became his apprentice Ollie always thought he knew so much better than Roy. It was clear to him once again why he had left and why he now had to do this on his own.
Green Arrow had been quiet for awhile now, so Red Arrow just turned over painfully where he was in the center of the cell. He curled his knees to his chest a little, as if he were cold.
But he was just in a lot of pain.