Chapter Twelve
Eternal didn't wince once as Black Canary stitched up her wound in the infirmary- while on the other side of the flimsy curtain, she could hear Red Arrow hiss every single time Red Tornado tugged at the stitching to tighten it. While Canary was precise, and gentle, Eternal would have preferred a healer that didn't speak so much. Canary constantly asked questions, then criticized their performance during the mission, and then congratulated them on retrieving the vials successfully- and then returned to how they could have almost gotten themselves killed.
Over and over again, Eternal rolled her eyes, and was tempted to kick Black Canary across the room.
She had been hit for the very first time that night- thank god her pain tolerance had been raised to the point of nearly superhuman during her… training…but never once had she been hit like this. Maybe a punch there, or a kick every now and then- but an arrow?
Never.
The sound of sheets rustling and needles being dropped into sanitary metal pans brought her out of her brooding, and her blue eyes darted towards it. She nearly growled when she spotted Red Arrow being dismissed by Red Tornado- who of course had completed stitching him up before Canary, who was only just now halfway through with her wound.
"You'll be done soon enough, Etty." Canary scolded when she noticed Eternal glaring at Red Arrow as he thanked Red Tornado.
Eternal's eyes turned towards Canary and glared at her. Canary just sighed, and rolled her eyes at the teenager. She had been huffing and puffing since Batman had handed the two over to Red Tornado and Black Canary, and the last thing she wanted was to be treated. She had demanded that she speak to Batman first- and even began to defy Batman's orders until Black Canary snatched her arm, and practically dragged the girl to the infirmary.
"You've said that twice now." Eternal growled as the turned away from Canary once more. Black Canary narrowed her eyes, and then glanced up at the girl, and then back down at her stitching. Ten stitches so far, maybe five or six more to go.
"Maybe if you wouldn't fidget so much, I would be done by now." Canary sighed as she made another stitch, and then eyed the wound.
Maybe just five more.
"Four more stitches, then you're done." Eternal snipped as Canary began once more. She paused to shoot a glare at the girl, and then continued working on the wound.
"You've never acted like this before, Eternal." Canary said with a slightly concerned tone to her voice. "Is there something wrong?" She finished the fourth stitch, and then secured the thread. Eternal jumped off of the bed before Canary could do anything else, and took long strides towards the door.
Eternal paused at the words, and looked back at Canary, who was still holding the needle and thread in her hand. The dark purple bruise was now obvious on her face, and it made her look terrifying.
"Nothing that concerns you." She snarled before walking towards the sliding door, and leaving the room, leaving Canary to stare at the where Eternal had been standing in shock.
-0-
"That doesn't concern you, Arrow." Batman groveled for the tenth time since Red Arrow had made a beeline to the briefing room. Red growled once more, and threw his arms out to his sides.
"If I'm going to be working with her, shouldn't I know her background? What if she's dangerous? What if she's a liability to the team?" He hissed at Batman. Batman finally shot him the infamous bat-glare, and Red Arrow took a step back, and lowered his arms.
"So what you're saying is that the Team should know your past as well?" Batman questioned as he glared at Red, who glared right back at the question.
"No!" He almost sounded like a whining child, and resisted the urge to stomp his foot. "Half of the Team already knows that I'm trustworthy! I have a solid past!" Red spat as the Dark Knight narrowed his eyes. The poor young man was obviously not about to quit.
"Because you trusted them with that information- they didn't demand that their superiors divulge every bit of information about you." Batman replied coolly, causing Red Arrow to glance away, and then back at the Bat. Now he knew he was wrong.
Red Arrow thought for a while, and Batman turned around back towards the holographic computer to continue cataloguing the mission that Red Arrow and Eternal had just completed. The Team was still in Byhalia tending to matters concerning Queen Bee.
"How did she know the codes to deactivate Luthor's security measures?" Red suddenly asked, causing the Dark Knight to glare at the screen in front of him.
Batman turned around slowly, his glare intact, and still just as effective as before.
"Eternal worked covert-ops missions for a living. Luthor happened to be her target more than once, and her eidetic memory allowed her to retain all of the codes she witnessed Luthor, and his attorney, used." He narrowed his eyes again at Red Arrow as if in warning. "End of discussion." He snapped before turning back to the computer, and returning to his typing. Red Arrow glared at the Bat's back, and huffed.
"I don't buy that. She knew Mercy and Sportsmaster far too well." Red Arrow snarled. Batman's hands suddenly stopped typing again, and he glared once again. Red Arrow continued. "I think she's a mole, Batman. She knows too much for her to even possibly be safe for the Team. She could get them killed." He explained his reasoning, and then watched as Batman reached back for the keyboard again.
After a few moments of watching him type, Red Arrow believed he had convinced the Dark Knight that Eternal was a traitor, and allowed a small smirk to grow on his face- but that smirk was wiped away when Batman began to speak again.
"I personally tracked down Eternal with Green Arrow and Black Canary, and all of us can vouch for Eternal- even if one of her own comrades does not believe that she has good intentions." He growled as if Red Arrow had hit a sore spot- which in truth, he had. Eternal was the first budding villain he had turned to their side, and he was very secretly proud of that fact. "When Eternal believes you, and her teammates are trustworthy enough, she will reveal that past to you- but for now, you have no right, and zero authorization to look into her past, question anyone, or by any means threaten Eternal's right to be on this team. Do you understand?" He snarled as Red Arrow felt himself cower under the Bat.
Red pasted a glare on his face, but still nodded at Batman. Batman turned to glare at him for a moment, and then turned away towards the computer once more.
"You are dismissed." He said curtly as he began to type once more, leaving Red Arrow to stand there and glare at his back.
Red gave a quiet huff, and turned towards the Zeta tubes to leave. Red Arrow was gone in a flash of light in a matter of seconds, and Batman stopped his typing once more.
"You can come out now." He spoke in his deep, commanding voice as he eyed the screen before him. He was watching the playback from the feed on Eternal's mask, and analyzing what went wrong.
Eternal walked out of the shadows, her uniform still unzipped and hanging around her waist, and a black tank top.
"Is the Team back yet?" She asked as she walked forward. Batman shook his head, and Eternal gave a relieved sigh as she reached to take off her gloves. Batman turned to watch the girl as she pulled the ring that concealed her true identity off of her finger, and her features changed completely. Her hair turned jet black starting from her roots then to the tips, her skin paled, the light freckles disappeared, and her eyes faded from their bright blue to their starry gray.
She sighed, and placed the ring in her utility belt carefully before reaching to look at her hair, and giving a small smile.
"I'm starting to forget what I really look like, Bats." She confessed as she walked forward, and stood next to him, turning her eyes towards the paused feed that he had been watching. Batman gave a discreet smirk, and turned back to the screen as well.
"You've got a good eye." Batman complimented, causing Eternal to give a small smirk.
When he didn't say anything else, Eternal's eyebrow rose in suspicion, and she looked up at Batman, who was significantly taller than her, and narrowed her eyes as she crossed her arms.
"…but?" She asked, causing Batman to look down at her. He should have known she could tell what was coming.
"But… you're not very good at watching out for your comrades." He said, causing Eternal to huff quietly, and turn back at to the screen. She watched as the computer analyzed her attacks, pausing every few seconds or so to point out weak spots on Mercy's frame, and rarely did it ever point out any errors on Eternal's- or now, human Mercy's side of the fight.
Until, that is, the moment she left Red Arrow wide open, and Mercy's disks went flying towards him. She was too far from her partner; she was not paying attention to both sides of the fight. Red Arrow was too far from Eternal, and he was aiming for the strongest point on Mercy's skull.
So many errors in just a span of three whole seconds it made Mercy sick. Batman reached forward, and stopped the feed.
"You will be sent on patrols with Black Canary in your spare time, on days Black Canary has League business to attend to, you will go on patrol with Robin in Gotham until your weakness in team combat improves significantly." Batman announced as Mercy gave a deep frown.
There goes my time with Roy. She thought sadly. That just means I'll have to work quickly.
"I trust you will fix this as soon as possible. But for now, I have a question for you." He reached forward, and Mercy looked towards the screen to watch as everything began to move backwards, the two of them moving back into the lab backwards down the stairs, backwards past Mercy's mother, past the fridge with the thumbprint scanner, and all the way back to the computer screen.
He stopped it when Eternal's eyes stumbled upon the two files with her name, and her mother's name on them, and paused it.
Mercy did not fidget, and did not look towards Batman. She knew it was against protocol, but she needed to know, and that was good enough for her.
"I'm going to need copies of these." He stated, pointing at the two files Eternal was gazing at on the screen. Mercy suddenly looked up at Batman, her face obviously displaying surprise, and her mouth fell open slightly.
"…you what?" She asked as she leaned forward slightly as if she were trying to hear him better.
Batman's expression did not change.
"I need copies of those files." He repeated. Mercy blinked a few times before clearing her throat, and looking towards the computer. She still hadn't gotten the chance to decrypt them, and there was no hope of copying them to another computer until she did.
"I still haven't decrypted them. I only got through two layers before I had to move on." She said, hoping that he would leave the files with her so that she could decrypt them himself. The Dark Knight seemed to debate for a moment, and then he reached forward, and opened a program on the computer.
"You have until dawn to decrypt them, and get the files to me. If I do not receive them by daybreak, I will come back, and I will remove them from your possession, permanently." He threatened as Eternal reached into her utility belt, and pulled out the flash drive. She nodded, and plugged the flash drive into the computer on her arm.
"Understood. Thank you, Bats." She said with a smirk before swiping the files on to the computer screen before her, and then walking forward to begin her work.
Batman glared at the mention of the nickname, but did not say anything about it as he turned around with a swish of his cape, and walked towards the Zeta tubes.
"And Mercy," He said as he began to type in his designation. Mercy turned around and looked at him with an eyebrow raised and her gray eyes wide. "Don't forget to put your ring back on by sunrise. The team should be back by then." Mercy nodded, and gave Batman a small wave.
"Yes sir." She chirped before turning back around, and beginning her work on decrypting the files as a certain archer climbed into bed thousands of miles away and pondered on the possibility of seeing Mercy the next day.
-0-
Roy Harper woke up the next afternoon with an aching arm and less than chipper attitude. When his alarm went off for the tenth time that day, he finally slammed his fist down on it, and it broke into several pieces. When he heard the alarm finally fall to the floor in pieces, he opened his eyes slightly, and groaned.
Alarm clock number three. He though as he squeezed his eyes shut, and then forced them back open as sunlight spilled into his room through the large window across the room, and onto his bed. This month…
"Damn it." He muttered as he rubbed his eyes, and sat up in bed. After a moment of staring at the broken clock on the floor, he looked towards the window with his tired blue eyes, and squinted at the bright light. It had to be at least two in the afternoon already, and by the sound of the heavy traffic thirteen stories below, it was a busy day in Star City.
Roy sighed, and then stood slowly, taking his time to stretch and give a long yawn before padding over to his bathroom to shower.
As the water warmed up, Roy took a look at his arm in the mirror, and grimaced as he removed the bandage Red Tornado had carefully wrapped around it. There was a spot of blood or two, but nothing serious. The wound looked clean, but he went ahead and dabbed a little bit of alcohol on it anyway, just to be safe.
He thought about Eternal's injuries, and thanked no one in particular that his injuries were easily concealed- but the massive dark purple and yellow bruise on Eternal's face would probably be there for several days, maybe even a week or two, and even with the best makeup a girl could possibly buy, he imagined it would be difficult to go into public with a giant bruise while Roy could just throw on a jacket and no one would know.
Roy threw away the dirty bandage and the cotton swab, and then hopped into the shower. It took him a grand total of fifteen minutes to finish his shower, exit, and carefully groom his hair before exiting the bathroom and getting dressed for the day.
He plucked his phone off of the kitchen counter as he walked briskly towards the fridge, and pulled it open to eye the its contents.
His eyes settled on the bottle of orange juice, and rested there for a moment.
"To call Mercy… or to not call Mercy…" He whispered to himself as he eyed the bottle, and then looked down at the phone in his hand. He had just seen her the other day, but he already missed the raven haired girl with an uppercut that could even break Batman's nose.
No, not today. There were too many questions that he needed answered today. Too many things to do to worry about covering up his tracks to keep Mercy unaware of his identity. Too many things to do.
He pocketed the cell phone with a frown, and pulled out the orange juice with a slight sigh, and walked over to the counter to pour himself a glass, and with the other hand, carefully reached for the television remote, and pressed the power button. As the tv began to turn on, he turned around, placed the orange juice back in the fridge, and then turned back around to pick up the glass and take a sip.
"We have some bad news for the single ladies of Star City today who've got eyes for the heir to Queen Industries and billionaire playboy, Roy Harper—because it seems like he's got eyes for someone else these days." Roy nearly spat out his drink when he looked up at the screen, and saw a video of himself and Mercy eating dinner at Mistral. The video was obviously shot from a hidden camera, because the film was grainy and would occasionally glitch- but it still infuriated Roy. He had wanted to keep Mercy hidden for a while before thrusting her into the spotlight with him.
"The couple had dinner together a week ago at the five star restaurant Mistral, and then continued their date well into the night with a midnight stroll through the park-" Video of Mercy and Roy walking through the park came onto the screen next to the bottle blonde reporter's head, and Roy slapped his forehead with his palm.
"Great…" He sighed as the news reel continued to spill more of his personal affairs to the world.
"But will this relationship continue after yesterday's incident concerning Roy Harper's new girlfriend and one of our reporters?" A video of Mercy punching the camera after breakfast the other day began to play on loop, and Roy finally spat out his drink after he peeked through his fingers to cringe at the video.
"I do have to admit though; girl's got a great swing, Stephanie." The male reporter sitting next to the female reporter, apparently named Stephanie, laughed as Roy continued to watch through his fingers. Stephanie gave an obviously fake laugh, and said something about how right her fellow reporter was as the video played over and over, and a photo of Mercy in mid-punch, her fist directed at the camera, was shown on screen. Roy could see his own stunned expression in the far top corner of the picture, but he couldn't focus on that as his hands covered his face once more, and he groaned loudly.
So much for keeping this quiet.
-0-
"Mother of Batman."
Roy swore over and over as he tried to escape the mob of paparazzi that had surrounded his cherry red convertible as soon as the parking garage doors had rolled open. They screamed and yelled their questions at him as he tried to crane his neck out to see into the street- resisting the powerful urge to do the same as Mercy had, and punch every single camera flashing at him in the lenses.
"Roy! Can you confirm-"
"Roy! Roy Harper!"
"Roy! Is it true that your girlfriend is-" Roy finally was finally able to see into the street through a gap in the reporters, and nearly peeled out of the mob of reporters, leaving them to cough at the smell of burning rubber. Roy looked up into the rearview mirror, and smirked at the coughing reporters as he drove down the street, and then took a sharp right towards Queen Enterprises. He knew Oliver would want to talk to him after that news reel that morning, and Roy wanted to talk to him about a particular member of the Team that played on his nerves.
Soon enough, he was being waved into the secure parking garage by a security guard, and found a spot right next to the elevator. Maybe everything would go smoothly today, maybe not, but either way, he hoped that Oliver would give him something to work with. If Eternal was bad news for the team, then the Team deserved to know, even if Batman said otherwise.
Oliver would tell me these things because he trusts me…right? His small smirk fell to a frown at the thought. He did storm out of the Hall of Justice; but Ollie and Dinah still took the time to check up on him, and they would go on patrols together every now and then; but, alas, you could still be family to someone and not be trusted.
The elevator dinged loudly, and Roy nearly jumped at the sound, and his gaze averted upwards towards the display in front of him. It read: "GRAND ENTRYWAY", and the doors slid open. He stood there for a moment, eying the Grand Entryway that truly lived up to its name. Oliver had made sure that it would cause jaws to drop and eyes to gaze in awe as soon as he was named CEO of Queen Enterprises, and he certainly had succeeded.
As Roy made his way out of the elevator, he heard the small screen return to its video about the history of Queen Enterprises and their goals on repeat, and then the doors closed, silencing the smooth voice of the female narrator. Roy gazed at the Grand Entryway, and smirked again. He loved coming to visit Ollie at work because when he walked in the Entryway, no one crowded him or called out his name, he was greeted with friendly nods and an occasional polite hello or a shake of the hand, and a comment about how he hadn't been seen around here in a while. And strangely enough, the sounds of cell phones ringing and the voices of business men swooning clients into business deals and heels clacking against the marble floor were comforting because it was so… ordinary.
Roy finally realized he had been standing there for a while, just gazing about the Grand Entryway, and began to put one foot in front of another, his hands taking their place in the jacket pockets of Roy's expensive jacket. A few nods came from a few men and woman making their way to the elevators, and Roy returned them courteously, and continued on as they passed him by.
Roy finally reached one of the elevators, and pressed the button that would take him to the top floor. This particular elevator was somewhat empty except for a few Queen employees talking on their phone or sending out emails from their tablets. They all knew who he was, but respected his space, and left him alone as one by one, they left the elevator as it rose, and after a while, Roy was left on his own to raise up three floors before he got to Ollie's office.
The elevator doors slid open, and revealed to him the hallway of offices, and an exquisite sign with carefully made stone letters with all of the head of departments names and positions on it next to the glass doors. Oliver Queen's name was at the very top in golden letters with the title of CEO next to it. Roy walked forward, and pushed the glass doors open .
Secretaries and business men always seemed to be rushing back and forth through the halls of this part of the building, especially since Oliver always seemed to want to make last minute changes to everything, which meant every department would have to go back, always around three days before their deadlines, and change everything- but of course, it was never for nothing, and the projects would become a huge success in the long run.
Roy carefully maneuvered himself through the halls, occasionally waving at the men and woman who raised up a hand and waved at him as he walked past their glass-walled offices as they talked on their phones or spoke to their secretaries, who always seemed to be carrying a teetering stack of papers and letters.
Roy finally made it to Oliver's office, and greeted his secretary with a smile, and she returned it eagerly.
"Hey Roy, he's taking an important call right now, but you can go ahead. Just be sneaky." She gave him a friendly wink, and Roy chuckled.
"Sneaky is my specialty, Rose." He quipped as he walked towards the doors, and turned the knob quietly. Oliver's office was the only one without glass walls or a window on his door- and for good reason.
Roy slipped into the office and quietly walked over to the leather seat in front of Ollie's giant wooden desk, and watched as his guardian and mentor leaned back in his chair casually and propped his feet up on the smaller desk behind him as he gazed out the window, occasionally nodding and giving the appropriate response before he finally turned around, and noticed Roy watching him from the leather seat, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Wayne." He paused and listened to Mr. Wayne as Roy began to eye the office around him. "Ah, yes. Of course I'll be seeing you at the Gala." Oliver looked up at Roy, who was gazing about the office, for a moment, and then smirked. "Yes, he's right here."
Roy's eyes darted towards Oliver, who was smirking at him, and narrowed slightly in suspicion.
"Of course, I'm sure he'd love to go to the Gala. And he'll bring his lovely girlfriend too." Oliver smirked as Roy frowned deeply and his brow furrowed. "Yes, yes, have a wonderful day Bruce. Bye-bye."
He then pressed a button, and his secretary's voice came through, but Roy couldn't hear.
"Rose, hold my calls for a while would you?" He paused, and then laughed lightly at something Rose said. "Thanks sweetheart."
Oliver finally hung up the phone, and Roy crossed his arms in his seat as his Guardian leaned forwards, and smiled. Roy knew what was coming next.
"So, when were you going to tell me about this girl?" Oliver questioned as he interlaced his fingers and placed them under his chin. Roy thought he looked like a gossiping school-girl. Roy kept his arms crossed and gave a huff.
"We've only gone out twice. It's not even official yet and the media has probably got her running away from Star City as we speak." Roy almost growled out the words as he thought of the videos playing on repeat on the news. The one of Mercy punching the paparazzi was probably the worst, and the one that concerned him the most.
"What's her name?" Oliver asked as he finally leaned back in his chair, his arms now resting on the arms of the chair as he leaned back and propped his feet on the desk. Roy finally uncrossed his arms, and leaned forward, and placed his elbows on his knees. He suddenly looked up at Oliver, who was still smirking, and mirrored him, causing Oliver to suddenly frown.
Oliver suddenly threw up his hands and his chin towards the ceiling.
"Oh come on! I'll find out soon enough, Roy. Just give it up!" Oliver practically shouted, his voice hinted with laughter as he looked back at Roy, who was now smiling at Ollie. Ollie, with his hands on the desk again, smiled at his adopted son, and gave a small chuckle. The room was silent for a minute, and then Oliver chuckled again, causing Roy to raise an eyebrow at him.
"You've got it bad, kid." Oliver said to Roy. Roy only smirked, and stayed quiet. He could just tell. Roy gave a childish shrug, and Ollie laughed.
"So tell me something, kid. You can't talk to family?" He teased as Roy finally looked up from the floor, and up at his adopted father with a sparkle in his eyes. Talking about Mercy made him feel like he was on cloud nine and the only person he had spoken to about it was the child, Daniel, who had promptly demanded a brownie in return for giving Mercy a letter.
"She's gorgeous, obviously." Roy said first, causing Oliver to grin at him.
"So I saw," Ollie commented, causing Roy to laugh quietly. "She sure can hit, too, from what I could actually see. You'd think reporters would use better quality cameras." Roy suddenly pointed at Oliver playfully, and he smiled wide.
"I did not know she was going to do that, but I'm impressed. It's nice to see a girl who's willing to voice- and act on- how she feels." Roy sounded like a romantic school-boy now, and Oliver couldn't help but smirk at him in delight. It was relieving to see Roy unwind since he had been so caught up in going solo lately, and his serious nature would become tiring after a while.
"She speaks German, some French. She can talk about anything; cars, politics, you name it, she knows all about it. She graduated early from school, top of her class, has scholarship offers to every school you could dream of and she says she's holding off on it because she wants to live without stress for a little while- which I can certainly understand. Did I mention she was born in Germany? Her Mom…" Roy rambled on and on about his 'mysterious' new girlfriend to Oliver, who smiled like a proud father should when he hears about his son finding the girl of his dreams, and allowed him to go on for another half an hour, with an occasional question from Oliver, which Roy would answer promptly.
When Roy finally realized he had gone into a long-winded version of everything Mercy had told him about herself, he clamped his mouth shut, and leaned back in the chair again, his arms crossed over his chest. Ollie frowned, and sighed. Un-wound Roy was gone now, and wound-up Roy was back.
"But, that's not what I came here for. Great job distracting me by the way." Roy commented. Oliver just shrugged and rolled his eyes. He didn't bother to mention that he didn't even have to distract Roy, because he did that all on his own.
"I'm here to ask you about Etty." He emphasized her name, and Oliver suddenly frowned at his protégée, and a stern look came to his usually playful eyes. Before Roy could continue, Oliver held up a hand, and shook his head.
"I'm going to stop you there, Roy." Oliver's voice sounded stern, and Roy knew that Oliver only got serious when Roy was going too far, or was about to go too far. "I've got strict orders to not breathe a word about Etty to you. This girl has saved your ass twice now, and you're still convinced that she's bad news. Why are you so suspicious of someone who possibly saved your life?" Oliver's question sounded exasperated, and Roy felt a small twinge of guilt in his chest.
Roy hesitated, but he knew what he wanted to say.
"Because there's no way you could just know security codes to a villain's manor just from observation. Or just know exactly how to trick an assassin. I'm suspicious because she is suspicious. I'm surprised the rest of the team isn't too!" He practically spat. Oliver glared at Roy, who he thought was being preposterous, and then the phone on his desk chirped obnoxiously, and Rose's voice came through the line.
"Um… sir, Clark Kent is here for that statement you promised him about the new scholarship program? He says you told him he could drop in any time." Oliver sighed, rubbed his eyes, and then picked up the phone.
"I'll be right out Rose." Oliver said quickly before hanging up and standing. Roy watching him as he began to walk away, and the turn around to point at him, Roy turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes a little.
"Don't. Touch. Anything." Oliver warned lightly before shaking his finger slightly and trying to glare. Roy's widened his eyes a little, and then gave a slow nod. Oliver shook his finger one last time, and then turned around, and briskly walked towards the door. Before opening it, he tugged at the bottom of his suit jacket, huffed quietly, and then swung the door open as he plastered a smile on his face.
Roy heard him greet Kent, and that was all after he closed the door behind him. Roy eyed the door for a moment, and then looked back towards Oliver's desk.
As if it had screamed at him, the tablet on the desk caught his eye right away, and his eyes narrowed at it. It was still unlocked. If he hurried, he could touch it, and keep it open.
He recognized it as the tablet Batman had designed for the more seasoned members of the Justice League. It was supposed to be used for 'business' matters only, but Oliver always used it at work because it worked better than any of the tablets you could buy with all the money he had.
He watched it, and watched it, and then finally the screen began to fade.
His hand darted forward so fast that even the Flash would have been impressed, and the screen lit back up to full brightness, and his feet began to make their way around the desk before he could stop himself.
"Sorry, Ollie." Roy whispered to himself as he began to swipe through the tablet, his eyes glancing up towards the door every now and then. He finally spotted a file that caught his eye, and he hesitated.
"Project Eternal-CLASSIFIED".
He released a breath of air, and then quickly pressed it. It promptly opened, as if Oliver had lazily saved the password, and Eternal's picture came onto the screen.
He dark red hair and her blue eyes were the first thing he saw, and then the picture next to it was a photo of her in costume that looked like it had been taken during a mission briefing. Her arms were crossed, and her expression serious underneath her mask. Her red hair was in its traditional single braid and was hanging over her shoulder as she glared at something off camera.
Red quickly read her physical profile, information that he already knew, and swiped downward to read further into Eternal's file.
It said the exact same thing Batman had told him all along. She had been an undercover agent for hire since she was very young, and was frequently hired by anonymous sources to keep an eye on Lex Luthor, or gather intel from his very home. Everything he had been told was confirmed on this file.
Roy scowled at the tablet, and quickly closed out of it. It had to be a ploy. There was no way that Eternal had just 'figured out' how to throw knives like that, or fight if she just 'gathered intelligence'. Roy's sensitive ears pricked at the sound of Oliver's voice.
"I'll be seeing you around, Clark! We should have lunch sometime!" Oliver said through the door as Roy exited the file, and locked the tablet. The doorknob turned, and Roy quickly, but quietly ran around the desk as the door cracked open.
Just as Roy's back hit the leather chair, the door opened, and Oliver stepped foot back inside of his office.
He closed the door slowly as he eyed the office, and then looked at Roy, who sent him a blank look.
"What did you touch?" Oliver asked with a tone of suspicion. Roy furrowed his eyebrows.
"I didn't touch anything." Roy said curtly as he stood. Oliver's face softened and he sighed as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Look, Roy. I'm sorry. You've just been so wound up since the thing at the Hall, and especially since Night got away-" Roy huffed loudly at that, and Oliver waited for a moment to speak again. "But you need to relax a little. You're wound so tight that one day you're just going to snap yourself in half from the pressure."
Roy glared at Oliver, and then without warning walked towards the Oliver, made his way around him, and then pulled open the door.
Without another word, Roy walked out of the office, leaving Oliver to slowly turn around, and stare at the agape door with a crestfallen look on his face.
As Roy made his way to the elevator, and just as the doors closed, his phone began to ring in his pocket. He tried to ignore it by closing his eyes as the elevator descended, but after a few more seconds, he sighed. It could be Mercy.
He pulled the phone out of his pocket with a sigh, and answered the call without looking at the caller ID.
"Hello?" He said, surprised at how dull his own voice sounded.
"There's an intruder in the cave. She won't give us her name, but she's asking for you." Robin said from the other end of the phone. Roy's blood chilled.
"Does she know?" He was referring to his secret identity. Robin shook his head, but took a moment to glance at the intruder. She was staring directly at him.
"No." He answered quietly as he turned his back on the girl. Something about her was familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. And the Boy Wonder could put his goddamn finger on everything. It was driving him crazy. "At least, I don't think so."
Roy looked forwards as the elevators door to the Grand Entryway. His blue eyes suddenly appeared fearsome as he walked out of the elevator, and walked as fast as he could to the elevators leading to the parking garage.
He was silent for a moment as he punched the button that would take him to the garage.
"I'm on my way."
-0-
TAH DAH I updated pretty quick, eh?
…yeah not so much. Spare a review?
But even though I don't really deserve them for making you guys wait so long for the last chapter.
BUT I UPDATED. IT COUNTS RIGHT?