Title: Silver.
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.
Rating: T.
Notes: Spoilers for up to Depths.
Summary: Red Arrow finds proof that he is his own person.
One day Red Arrow looks in the mirror and realises that there is a dark silver line in one of his eyes. He frowns, leans in closer and stares. He's looked in the mirror a lot of times (too many times if you talk to Dinah) and he's never noticed that before. But he has more important things than worrying about his looks now (like finding Speedy) so he shrugs his shoulders and goes back to work.
Two months later and Dinah who is 'fed up of him looking like a ragamuffin' tells him that if he doesn't go home, shower and shave she won't let him back on the League computer to look for more information on Speedy. It's when he's carefully shaving under his nose that he notices that his left eye is half dark silver, half blue. Now that he can't ignore. No matter how much he wants too. So he tells Dinah. Who promptly panics and calls in Batman much to Roy's annoyance. After more tests than Roy likes to remember Batman finally comes up with an answer.
"The cloning process they had wasn't completely perfect." Batman tells him, bringing up several pictures on the screen as he does. Including some of him, 'Jim' Harper and what looks like Superboy. "Match – the completely Kryptonian clone of Superman – has black sclera, light blue irises and black pupils. And apparently, you also had a minor . . . defect as they put it."
"My eyes?"
"Yes. They were silver, rather than blue. But they designed some drug that made them turn the right colour that Sportsmaster gave to you every year to help keep up the illusion that you were the original Speedy. Since you're no longer under their control you have not been administered the drug and your eyes are turning back to their natural colour." Batman turns back round to look at him and there's almost something . . . gentle in the way he adds. "But you have nothing to worry about – this isn't a sign you're . . . degrading as some of the first attempts at clones did."
Roy fights back bile as he remembers the files Batman found on the first set of clones of the real Roy Harper. He may be a fake but even a fake doesn't deserve to die like that. No one does. And what happened to the previous clones is why Dinah panicked when his eye changed colour.
"So both my eyes will turn silver?" He asks once he's got his gag reflex under control.
"Yes. It will take at least another six months, more than likely longer."
Roy nods, thoughts flying through his head as he stumbles to his feet. He thinks he might have muttered a gruff "Thanks" to Batman over his shoulder as he left but he doesn't really care if he did or not. He manages to find a bathroom close by and lurches inside, locking the door behind him.
His hands are trembling as he removes his mask, it slips from his shaking hands to land on the metal floor but he doesn't care. Leaning over the sink he peers into the mirror. Reaching out with one hand he traces the silver colour of his eye in the reflective surface. Silver. He's going to have silver eyes. This is it – this is the proof that he is his own person. Not some discarded weapon. Not some cheap replacement. Red Arrow has silver eyes and he is his own person.
Roy lets out a strangled noise from the back of his throat and sinks to his knees. He might have stolen the real Roy Harper's life for the last three and a half years but he is still his own person.
Oh god, the real Roy Harper.
He still has to find him. Still has to save him. Because if Red Arrow can be his own person and lead his own life then so should Speedy. The kid shouldn't remain locked away in some frozen Hell just because he chose to follow in Green Arrow's footsteps. And Red Arrow can't have a life, can't be his own person until Speedy can too. So he'll keep searching. And he'll find him and together, together, they can be human and free and alive.
His eyes become his remainder. Any time he feels down (like when the League stops searching, when Ollie and Dinah stop searching, when the Team stops searching, when Jade leaves, when Kaldur leaves) he takes off his mask and looks in the mirror. And staring back at him will be a pair of silver eyes that remind him that he is his own person and that this person will never give up no matter what.
But the true importance of his eye colour doesn't strike him until he finds himself looking into the wide eyes of his daughter for the first time. His daughter, who has dark brown eyes with silver flecks in them. Silver, like his eyes. His daughter has his eyes. And if this isn't the ultimate sign he doesn't know what is. Because his eyes were proof that he could be his own person, not a cheap knock-off of Speedy and not a weapon. Now his eyes are proof that this beautiful baby girl is all his and his alone. He doesn't have to share her with Speedy or Jim. She's all his.
He knew that once he saved Speedy he could be his own person, have his own life. And now he knows what that life will be about, what it will revolve around. Because Lian is his daughter and from now on his job is to give her the life she deserves. So once he's found Speedy, once he's saved him, Roy can focus on the one other thing that is completely and utterly his.
Lian.
And nothing, nothing will make him happier.
End Silver.
So, I wanted Red Arrow to find a way to feel like his own person and when he takes off his mask in 'Bloodlines' I thought his eyes looked silver and viola, this fic was born. Hope you enjoyed it.