Two days ago, my mother's dog had to be put down.

R.I.P. Ranger. You will be sorely missed.

ENJOY!

"You're doing the right thing Superboy." The older doctor said, sounding as though he was proud of him.

Conner glared at him, and the man immediately shut up.

"He won't feel a thing." The lady vet promised. She was drawing back the plunger on a syringe, filling it with liquid from a bottle.

Conner held Wolf closer at the thought that that was the needle that would kill his friend. "I wish I believed that." He answered, looking down at Wolf.

He'd seen what happened when something was put down, back when he'd been at Cadmus.

Cadmus dealt mainly in clones amongst other things. It wasn't an exact science, though they'd certainly brought it pretty close, but every once in a while you got an unviable clone or genomorph. And when they were 'put down', with the way they thrashed it was a pretty safe bet to say they felt it.

He'd never seen it with his own eyes, as his first time out of the pod had been when Robin, Kaldur, and Wally rescued him. But he could hear what went on beyond the walls of his pod. He'd often asked questions. The genomorphs often answered him with images, their memories. After the fifth time he asked about those screams, he'd stopped asking.

That was part of the reason he was sitting here now.

He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to see the pain and betrayal in Wolf's eyes when death came. But at the same time he was most likely the only one who could restrain Wolf. That, and he didn't want Wolf to be alone amongst strangers when he died. Wolf knew Batman technically, but that didn't really count.

Conner? What's going on? M'Gann asked anxiously inside his mind.

Conner blocked her out, cutting his communication with her. He wanted to be alone right now. He stroked Wolf's fur, noticing that his hand was trembling. Wolf seemed to know something was wrong. He lifted his head, intelligent gold eyes searching Conner's face. Oh yes, his boy was upset about something.

He wagged his tail a little, and reached up to lick Conner's chin comfortingly.

Conner watched the vet apprehensively as she moved towards Wolf's I.V. line. It was the work of a few moments, and then she was through, the deed was done. He waited expectantly, waited for Wolf to cry out, to start thrashing in his arms. But there was nothing.

The vet hesitantly placed a hand on Conner's arm. "He won't feel anything." She promised again. "He'll get drowsy, and then he'll just drift off to sleep."

She wasn't lying.

It didn't take long. Wolf's eyes soon grew heavy, and he quietly seemed to drift off to sleep. But the long, unending wail of the heart monitor was like a dart in his heart when Wolf finally flat lined a few minutes later, and the massive India wolf breathed out one last time in a tired sort of sigh.

Conner kept mechanically petting him, his eyes never leaving Wolf's face. As if he expected Wolf to move all of a sudden. To open his eyes.

She hadn't been lying, Wolf hadn't felt a thing. It was nothing like the Cadmus 'put downs', and for that he was infinitely grateful.

Everything was a sort of blur after that.

He stayed there with Wolf until Superman arrived with Martian Manhunter, and then Batman silently led him from the room. He followed the dark knight back down the hall to the waiting room. His friends were there, and they were crying, or at least the girls were. They already knew.

He half expected them to be angry with him for making that decision, but no, they all moved round to comfort him.

Sometime that night they returned to the mountain via the bio ship, though he had no memory of the journey. He made his way to his room, as if on auto pilot. That room he'd shared with Wolf so many times before. But never again.

Without a sound, without a tear, he laid down on his bed and closed his eyes.

Conner eyed the grave.

Or rather, he eyed the blurry mess that he knew should be Wolf's grave. They had buried Wolf the next day, and it was only after he had helped them shovel the last spade full of earth into that hole that the tears had come. It hadn't seemed real before, but somehow, this made it real. And it made it final. Wolf was gone. There was nothing left to do.

Conner had killed him.

It had been a week since then, and Conner came here often. He cried often too. It seemed inconceivable to him that such a strong, powerful creature like Wolf could be dead. Gone. But he knew it to be true, he'd made him gone.

He'd killed him.

Not for the first time, and definitely not for the last, the almost one year old clone bowed his head to rest on his knees and wept for his missing friend.

"Just trust me ok?"

Conner silently followed Robin, feeling as if he were sleepwalking. It'd been like this since he'd lost Wolf. Like he was in a daze.

Robin led him down the halls by the hand, reminding Conner of the little toddlers he saw at the park. He idly wondered which of them was the toddler, the one being led? Or the one dragging the other along?

The others were waiting in the living room.

All were seated, as if they were going to have a movie night. Conner shook his head, trying to gently pull his hand from Robin's. "I'm…not really in the mood for a movie night guys." He said softly.

Robin wasn't about to give in though. "It's not a movie night." He answered, keeping a tight grip on the clone's hand. Shoving Conner into his seat on the couch next to M'Gann, he put his hands grimly on his hips and grinned. "At least not that kind of movie." Offering a mock bow to M'Gann, he gestured at the waiting teens gathered around. "Miss M, if you'd do the honors?"

M'Gann's eyes glowed silver green.

Link established. She thought directly into their minds. Who's first?

Got it. Artemis answered.

An image filled Conner's mind, unbidden. He guessed it was in the minds of the others too, but he didn't ask. The image was of Wolf. They were on a mission. He remembered that mission, they'd been fighting the injustice league.

Wolf had taken on Black Adam.

As they moved through the mission, the point of view kept shifting. One minute they were looking through the eyes of an archer with a green bow, obviously Artemis. The next they would be looking through the eyes of a young man with mocha colored skin and black sorcerer's eel tattoos on his arms.

"What was that?" Conner breathed when they had finished. He stared at his friends in shock.

"This is a memorial service." Robin answered, grinning. "Just with a meta-human touch. And those, were our memories." He suddenly laughed and looked to M'Gann. "Ooh! I've got a good one!"

Wally batted playfully at his friend. "Dude!...Fine, but I've got the next one!"

What followed was a collection of memories the likes of which Conner would never have imagined. Not surprisingly, many of them were of Wolf on missions with them.

But over two thirds of them were of other things.

Him rough housing with Wolf on the matt, the team playing Frisbee or swimming with the India wolf out on the beach, or M'Gann sneaking tidbits to Wolf when she knew no one was looking. Everyone dissolved into fits of laughter when they realized that Zatanna and Artemis were guilty of sneaking food to Wolf on the sly as well. Memory after memory was proffered by himself and his teammates, and it warmed his heart to see how much good was there.

Then came one from Wolf's point of view.

They gazed up at Conner's face through color blind eyes.

They saw Conner tense as the vet moved toward the I.V. line in Wolf's paw. Wolf knew something was wrong, that Conner was worried and upset. He wagged his tail a little and reached up to give Conner a comforting lick.

He knew and understood more than his boy gave him credit for.

Wolf knew something was wrong. Knew that something was wrong inside him. Just like when he'd first grown and become strong, after that metal thing with a bit of human in a jar had forced him to become what he was now. He'd sensed the changes then. And he sensed new changes now.

Bad changes.

He didn't feel anything yet, but he knew it wouldn't last long. That was probably what was worrying his boy. His boy knew. Somehow, his boy knew. Wolf could feel his boy petting him, knew his boy wouldn't leave him here alone. If the bad changes could be fixed, his boy would do it.

But he understood if his boy couldn't.

He nuzzled into his boy's stomach, and was happy to see a little smile touch his boy's cheeks. That was why he'd stayed with this boy, back in India. That was why he'd let his pack go without him. He had liked this boy. As time had gone by, he'd come to love this boy.

His eyelids were growing heavy, it was getting harder to stay awake. He nuzzled into his boy's stomach one last time before allowing his eyes to fall closed. He knew his boy loved him.

And he absolutely adored his boy…

Tears glittered on Conner's cheeks as the memory ended.

His teammates were the same. All eyes slowly turned to settle on M'Gann. They had all known that M'Gann had tapped into a mind inside the treatment room to learn what was going on. They just hadn't realized that mind had been Wolf's.

M'Gann gently cupped Conner's cheek in her hand.

"He loved you Conner." She said with a tearful smile. "And he only ever wanted you to be happy." She gently brushed Conner's bangs to one side. "You didn't kill him Conner. He's still alive, so long as we all remember him. And I don't think any of us is likely to forget."

Conner looked to the others, and they all shook their heads no. No, they wouldn't forget. He smiled and gathered M'Gann into a hug.

"Thank you." He murmured. "Thank you all…"

Conner sat by Wolf's gravesite.

He wasn't crying. He rarely did anymore. It had been almost a month now, since Wolf had died. Conner no longer thought of himself as a murderer. He missed Wolf. He missed him like crazy. He missed the warmth of his fur, the shrewd wildness in his gaze, the solid support of his presence. He missed Wolf.

But he was healing.

A sound caught his ear. The clone turned and rose to his feet. It was coming from the bushes a little farther down the hill. He slowly made his way down the slope, tracking the sound and sweeping the area ahead of him with his infrared vision.

There.

He slid down the last bit of slope. A young pup wedged into a bush. He gently lifted the young creature out of it's predicament, his face getting bathed with kisses as a thank you. He gave a hesitant smile, before slowly trudging back up the way he'd come.

He paused for a moment at Wolf's grave, unsure.

After several long minutes, he turned and carried the squirming, leggy young pup into the mountain and down to the kitchen. The rest of the team was there, and they all 'ooh'd and 'ah'd over the puppy in his arms while M'Gann put some scraps from her cutting board into a bowl. When she was ready, he set the pup down in front of the bowl and they all laughed as the ravenous little beast attacked the scraps with a voracious appetite.

Conner was laughing along with the rest when he happened to glance up and saw the dark knight standing there in the doorway.

Now that he'd seen that chink in the dark knight's armor, he found himself able to notice it more often, as if his eyes were now trained to detect it. It was the little signs really, and he doubted he would've noticed before if Batman hadn't shown him what to look for in that little room hidden in the depths of S.T.A.R. labs.

He gathered up the puppy, who's belly was now slightly distended, then turned hesitant eyes on Batman in the sudden silence as the others realized they had an audience. Batman quietly held out his hands, and Conner passed the pup over without question.

He'd come to trust Batman more since that night.

The dark knight carefully looked the pup over from nose to tail, seeming to take in every detail. When he seemed to be concluding his examination, Conner finally dared to break the silence.

"Can I keep him…?"

The dark knight's eyes narrowed. But at last, he carefully handed the pup back to Conner. "Have Red Tornado check him over." He turned to leave, but paused in the doorway.

"So long as he is healthy and carries nothing from our enemies…you may keep him."

Oh god, the feels! I damn near cried writing this story... :(

Review.

Until next time...