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Chapter 14

Dick stared at the redhead in the seat next to him. He looked exactly like a younger Roy. Well, a younger Roy missing an arm. He even had the same "I hate life" expression Roy liked to put on when frustrated with Oliver. Younger Roy glanced over before facing him.

"Are you planning on staring at me every day when you come in or is this just a temporary thing?"

Dick sighed and averted his eyes. "I'm sorry, Roy. It's just weird seeing you here."

"Oh, yeah. Why? Because I've been missing for almost four times the amount of time I thought I was?"

"Well that and…" Dick hesitated.

"Quit hesitating. Just give it to me straight. Not much else you can say will really shock me." Dick snorted. There were a lot of things he could tell Roy that would shock him. That brought him to his current dilemma. Should he tell Roy he was cloned and it took Ollie three years to figure it out or come up with another excuse for his hesitation? Dick saw Roy—well, the clone Roy at least—as a big brother and was close to him. He was much nearer in perceived age to this other Roy and definitely did not want to be the bearer of bad news, but Roy deserved to know that the search had only recently resumed. Well, there were no mics nearby that would pick them up if they spoke quietly. With that in mind, Dick steeled himself for the furious reaction that was sure to come.

"Are you sure? You have to keep your reaction quiet, okay?"

"Of course, now tell me."

"Okay. Let me know if you have questions." Roy nodded in agreement. Dick dropped his voice to a low whisper. "Roy, from what we've figured out, you were originally taken by Cadmus."

"Who's we?" Dick hesitated before reluctantly answering.

"The Justice League."

"The Justice League is looking for me? Cool. Continue."

"You were originally taken by Cadmus, a scientific branch of a secret organization known as the Light. We think they took you on one of your first patrols… Is that right?"

"Yeah. I'd only been out a few times."

"Well, anyways…" Fast was the best way to tell him, like speedster fast, yeah. "They cloned you and let Oliver find the clone and we didn't know until about six months ago and we're sorry."

A beat of silence as Roy processed. "WHAT!?"

"Shhh…"

"Don't shush me! You can't just drop a bomb like that on me and expect me to be-"

"Is there a problem?" A nurse came up beside the two boys and cut Roy off, glaring at them. "Now is the time to be silent." Roy glared back at the nurse and then turned back to the front, crossing his arms and slouching in his chair. Dick looked between the two frantically. The nurse nodded, satisfied, and walked away.

"You can't tell anyone. They'll want to know how you found out and I'm not supposed to know." He whispered to Roy.

"What do you mean you're not supposed to know? You said you were searching for me." Roy hissed back.

"I was."

"Exactly, so how were you not supposed to know?"

"Dick Grayson isn't supposed to know Roy Harper is a clone," Dick mumbled, glancing up to make sure there were no more nurses nearby as they whisper-argued. "My dad is a sponsor of the League, along with Ollie and a couple others. I grew up knowing many of them. I… My dad told me that the other Roy was a clone and we started searching."

"Oh… You're from Gotham, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know Magpie?"

"Who?"

"Erm. Magpie. Batman's partner. I think that's his name."

Dick wasn't sure whether to laugh or feel insulted. "You mean Robin?"

"Yeah! That guy!" A nurse gave them a dirty look, prompting both boys to fall silent from a moment.

"Magpie is a cooler name than Robin. Robin is girly."

"What? And Magpie's not?"

"Nah. Magpie is cool. It has pie in the name."

"What?" A beat of silence. "Oh, I see. You're trying to cover up the fact you didn't know what his name actually is."

"So, do you know him?" Yep. Nice try though, Roy.

"Yeah. You could say I know him. I know a bunch of the league."

"Cool. He seems fairly badass."

"I don't know. He doesn't get out much. Batman's fairly protective."

"Nah. I'm sure he gets out enough. If we had Robin, we probably wouldn't be here for much longer. Anyone trained by Batman has to be amazing."

Dick looked down at his hands. He had no idea how to get out of here.

After watching Dick in silence for a while, Roy spoke up. "Anyways, they're not just searching for me then, are they?"

"No, but they wouldn't have been. This is obviously a large operation. They're looking for everyone," Dick glanced up again to check where the nurses were. They were delivering some kids to the back. One kid was being stubborn about the ankle cuff, successfully keeping the attention off the boys in front. "The Justice League is going to find us, and when they do, they're going to bury these jerks. Batman, especially. He hates when kids are hurt. It's like his specialty." Roy nodded, glancing at the supposed son of one of the league's main sponsors, and then smirked.

"Jerks? Really? Does your dad have a thing against cursing?"

"Not really, but Alfred did. I'll tell you more later, but for right now, keep this to yourself. I don't want to find out how they would use me if they found out."

Before Roy could say anything more than "Okay," the teacher entered the room.

"Good morning class. Today, we will be talking about the origin of the Easter Bunny and the relevance it had at the time of its conception." The Easter Bunny? Really? What kind of crap were these people planning on stuffing into their heads, anyways? Dick dropped his head onto his hand and prepared for several hours of boredom.

In Dick's opinion, lunch was the best part of the day. The nurses shoved all the kids into a large room, served them food based on the number on their arm, and then left them to their own devices for 45 minutes. Although they were all still being watched closely by a practical army of armed nurses, there to prevent any escape attempts, and the room was underground, the kids were free to socialize and make friends, sitting with whomever they wanted.

Dick plunked down next to Alex. Roy, who had followed him like a duckling from the classroom, sat down across from them, desperate to learn more about the search efforts and how no one in the league had realized he had been cloned.

"Alex, Roy. Roy, Alex. Alex, this is the friend I told you about. Roy, this is my roommate Alex."

"Hello." The two boys said in sync, eyeing each other curiously.

"Damian! Over here!" Dick called, spotting the small boy dawdling on the other side of the room. Damian looked up at his name, found them, and then darted through the crowd to claim the space next to Dick. Dick took Damian's tray and placed it on the table as Damian clambered onto the bench.

"Who's this?"

"This is Damian. He's our roommate. We have a triple."

"They're taking babies now?"

"I'm not a baby!" Damian cried, straining to reach his food. "I'm four!"

"I know." Dick assured him, subtly pushing Damian's tray a little closer, even as Alex exclaimed, "You can speak English?"

"Of course I can speak English. Anyone who cannot speak English is either disabled or an imbecile."

"That's not necessarily true." Dick said. "English is a hard language for people to learn if it's not their first language, especially if they speak a language with a different alphabet or different roots. It's not that hard when they're young, like you are, but not everyone has the chance to learn a second language when they're young." Damian snorted in response, but appeared a bit contrite.

"Why didn't you speak English yesterday when you got back from the tests? Or the day before that? You only spoke gibberish."

"Not gibberish! Arabic! And Arabic is a better language than English!" Damian stabbed at the meatballs on his plate. He peeked at Dick and asked, in a low voice. "What does gibberish mean?"

"It means nonsense or a bunch of random sounds with no clear meaning." He answered.

"So, did you all come together?" Roy asked. Dick and Alex exchanged glances.

"Together, no, but I think we got here at the same time. I'm from Gotham, Alex is from Italy, and Damian's from… I'm actually not sure where. Damian, where are you from?" Damian shrugged. "Do you know where you were before the nurses got you?"

"You mean the bluemen? I was in Baghdad."

"The bluemen? I love it. We need to spread that around." Dick said, with a smile. "So, yeah. We weren't all kidnapped together, but we might have been pushed together sometime on the journey. I don't know. It kind of got fuzzy sometime during the sea voyage."

Roy stopped eating and looked at his new friend. "Sea voyage?!"

"Well, I think it was a sea voyage. The box was rocking enough and I think the rough voice said something about a boat. My memory's kind of foggy…" Dick said softly. "I slept most of the time. Did you guys have something similar?"

"I didn't have that." Alex commented.

"We took a long car with lots of seats most of the way." Damian stated, not knowing the English word for bus.

"I think I took a plane, and some cars."

"Cars, definitely," Alex confirmed. "Or a van."

"Guess I'm special even for the specials." Dick said bitterly.

At that moment, a shouting match broke out on the other side of the room, causing the rest to go silent. Two boys, about 16 years old, were yelling every insult they knew at each other including many colorful curse words that prompted Dick to put his hands over Damian's ears, holding them firm as the younger boy tried to throw him off. Before they even figured out what was happening, the boys leapt on each other and started throwing punches. The bluemen—what a good name—swarmed forward and pulled the two boys apart, but they kept shouting, seemingly oblivious to anything other than what was in front of them.

Frederick came into the room with two collars. He took something from each of the boys and clamped the collars around their necks. They were instantly silenced, although their mouths were still moving. He activated an electrical charge and held it until the boys passed out.

"Detention Room 3." He directed the nurses. "What are you all looking at?" He asked the room at large, giving a menacing glare at the silent children as he left the room. Whispers instantly broke out.

"Alright. Back to your classes!" A nurse called.

"But lunch isn't over!" A young girl protested. The blueman grabbed something from her as well, before slapping her across the face and handing it back. No one else protested and the bluemen started to take groups of students out.

"See you after class." Dick muttered to Alex and Damian, giving Damian a brief pat on the head as his and Roy's class was led out.

The rest of the day passed smoothly, if not quietly. Some of the older kids recovered quickly and started to whisper to each other, but even the whispers disappeared when it was time to go back to the rooms. The special interest kids were led out first, as the rest of the children went straight to dinner following classes. Two nurses came by with Alex to retrieve Dick, but Damian was nowhere in sight.

The silence was unnerving. The only sound was the shuffling of feet as the tension in the air rose. Dick opened his mouth to break it, to ask where Damian was, but clamped it shut when Alex caught his eye and shook his head frantically. The heavy hand of one of the bluemen resting on his thin shoulder served as an additional deterrent.

Dick looked around, watching as other kids were nudged into triple locked rooms. He could have sworn there were people talking yesterday and the day before that, so why was it silent today? Was this entirely due to the fight in the lunch room? Or was it something else?

Before long, they reached his and Alex's room and came to a stop. A few other kids and their guards continued past them as one of the nurses unlocked the door. Dick's nurse put a hand on his other shoulder.

Just as he was about to push Dick inside and lock the door, a younger nurse came running up. "Hey!" he shouted, breaking the oppressive silence. He stopped next to them and slouched over to catch his breath. "Hey, Ronnie wants to see 169 downstairs in room 21B. She sent me to get him and an escort." Dick's nurse and Alex's nurse looked at each other, and then Dick's nurse reached down and checked Dick's left arm for the black tattoo. He turned to the younger nurse and nodded. The two boys made eye contact and then the bluemen shoved Alex in and closed the door in his face. Dick's nurse turned and started to steer Dick back down the hallway.

After they turned the corner, the younger nurse stopped and pulled out a blindfold. Dick sighed as they wound it around his head. They were seriously overly paranoid, and he knew paranoid. Dick was led through several more turns, into the elevator, out of the elevator, and through more turns before finally coming to a stop inside a small room. Dick reached to take the blindfold off, but the nurses guided his hands back down, and sat him down on a bed.

Ronnie entered the room at her normal stride. Two nurses were standing in the corner of the room with the new test subject for the project sitting on the bed. It was small—likely the smallest so far—and skinny with the almost staple black hair. Another week, another child. Maybe this one would survive longer than the last.

"169?" She barked.

"Yep. According to his stamp, anyhow." One of the nurses said.

"You can take the blindfold off. It might as well see what we're doing. It's not like it can do anything about it." The kid made a face behind his blindfold at being called 'it'. Well, she wasn't about to apologize. It helped her separate him—it!—from other children she knew. She hoped this one had actually done something to deserve this, but knew deep down, in the back of her mind, in the conscience she tried to keep locked away, that no one deserved this.

Ronnie turned away as the blindfold was removed, busying herself with the last of the preparations for the first steps of the process. According to the kid's file, he had been special interest, probably picked either for his ancestry, as a ransom, or both. The chemicals were ready in their syringes, a combination of series three and five, separated so that any chemical reactions would be affected only by the fluids already in the body. The process was cruel and dangerous to the kid, but the higher ups believed this combination would work. Still, she had done a small test of the chemicals with a small sample of blood. It looked safe… ish. Ronnie grabbed a syringe to take blood for a control group, and turned around to face the kid.

Blue eyes. That was the first thing that registered when she faced it again. Big, innocent, bright blue eyes clouded by wariness and a bit of fear and accented by a pale face which obviously hadn't seen much sun lately. She almost ordered them to put the blindfold back on, but held back. She couldn't show any weakness.

"Alright. Hold it still. I need a blood sample."

One of the nurses had a firm grip on its left shoulder, so it didn't pull away when she tied a tourniquet and inserted the needle in the crook of its elbow. She took a full tube of blood, removed the needle and tourniquet, and put a cotton ball and a band aid over the puncture wound so the blood wouldn't escape. Then, she screwed a top on the tube, marked the tube, placed the tube in a cooler, and set a countdown timer for fifteen minutes, the amount of time for the blood to clot and close the small needle wound. She could feel its gaze as the blue eyes followed her every move.

When the timer hit one minute, Ronnie nodded to the two nurses, who grabbed hold of the kid and forced it to stand up and be still, and then grabbed the needles with the chemicals. Careful not to look at its face, she injected one in each arm, feeling the kid's fear in its muscles as she depressed both needles. Once the injections were finished, the nurses let go of it, and started patting down the bed and preparing the straps.

"Jumping jacks. Keep going until I give you permission to stop." First words to the kid. Yay. She started a stopwatch. The kid hesitated for a second, but started the jumping jacks. Could it speak? She hadn't heard it protest once. She knew the second the chemicals reached each other because the kid stumbled and its face contorted in pain. "Keep going," she barked instantly, receiving an incredulous look from the kid.

Five minutes and the kid was wavering, trying hard to keep going, probably afraid of punishment, but running out of strength. It wouldn't be long now before the combined chemicals would be spread to all parts of the body. By seven minutes, its arms were flagging and form was dropping rapidly as the combination caused a numbing sensation. Most of the kids collapsed between eight and ten minutes, if not long before then. She saw it was trying to stop again, and gave it a good hard glare. It kept going, picking up its speed again.

At nine minutes, its legs went out. It tried to get up again, but couldn't stand. She stopped the stopwatch, and gestured to the nurses. They came over, lifted the kid up, who feebly tried to push them away, and placed it down on the bed. They arranged the kid's limbs so that it was semi-comfortable and then pinned it down with the straps. The nurses attached a few beeping machines to the kid to monitor its vital signs. It would stay overnight for observation, and rejoin the rest of the kids in the morning.

A/N Hi everyone! Hope you're having a great summer!

The hardest part of this chapter was making sure Ronnie always said "it" instead of "he," something that's extremely important to her character. Well, that and connecting everything smoothly.

I have a challenge: Go through this chapter and find all the representations of fear. I put a bunch in there without even realizing it. I noticed when I went back and reread the chapter. Each character deals with their fears different ways, too, although there's some overlap.

Follow, Favorite, Review, please.