I really liked the way this chapter turned out, and I really liked Roy and Mallory's dynamic before he disappeared, so I'm happy he's coming back now. Anyway, hope you like it, and I'd love to get a review on it!
A week later, Mallory was patrolling Metropolis when she got the call that the zeta shield was up. "Great. Now all we have to do is round up anyone who's still here," she said when Nate told her.
"That shouldn't be too hard, now that more can't keep coming in," he replied.
She nodded and signed off. She was about to fly on when her comm beeped again, this time on her private line. "Inferno here," she said.
"Hey, are you busy tonight?" Wally asked, his voice more serious than usual.
"Uh, kind of, I'm in Metropolis right now. Why? What's up?" she asked.
"We found him, but he's not in good shape. We're going to try to talk to him. I thought you'd want to come."
"Wait, you found who?" Mallory asked, her mind going straight to Kaldur.
"Roy," Wally replied somberly.
Mallory's heart skipped a beat and she froze mid air. "Yeah, I'll be there. Where is he?" she asked.
"Dick and I are on our way, I'll send you the coordinates. Ollie found him in Star."
Five minutes later, Mallory was in Star city, flying towards the coordinates that Wally sent to her suit. She saw Green Arrow, Black Canary, Jim Harper, the first clone of Roy Harper, Nightwing, and Wally on a roof across from a strip of stores and landed behind them.
"Did I miss anything?" she asked anxiously.
"Not much," Green Arrow replied, barely glancing up.
"Where is he?" the pyrokinetic asked.
Nightwing nodded to a roof a few buildings away. That was the first clue that Mallory had that it was going to be bad.
"How long have you been tailing him this close?" she asked.
Oliver looked at her gravely. "Most of the night," he said.
Mallory winced. If he couldn't tell that there was an entire group watching him from this distance, then there was something wrong. "Anything I should know before?" Mallory asked.
Wally huffed. "Just that it's bad, and he's stealing now."
She sighed deeply and nodded. "Ok, then. Let's go."
The group made their way over a few rooves to be in line with Roy's path, and they stayed behind the door to the roof, not wanting him to see them right away and get scared off. His going was slow and shaky, but he finally shot a line to their roof and used his bow to slide over. His arms were shaking violently, and they finally gave out two feet from where he should have let go. He fell and rolled across the cement roof, his bow flying a few feet away. Oliver stepped over, standing right in front of him. Roy looked up, his face showing panic.
Arrow held out an arm. "Hey, Roy," he said gently, his voice showing his pain at seeing his old partner and surrogate son in such bad shape, "need a hand?"
Roy batted the offered hand away. "No," he snapped, his voice as strong and stubborn as ever, which seemed like a miracle considering how he looked. He was too skinny, like he wasn't eating anymore, his hair was long and unkept, he needed a shave, his arms and legs were shaking with fatigue, or worse. But he managed to push himself to his feet without help.
Nightwing stepped out of the shadow of the door where the others had been watching. "We think you do," he said, gently but firmly. Wally, Mallory, Canary, and Jim followed him out to the middle of the roof, and Roy's face hardened as he realized what they were doing.
"I have nothing to say to any of you," he said firmly. "Nothing to explain, nothing to justify." He snatched up his bow and started to walk away.
Green Arrow caught up to him as he was about to shoot a line to the street and grabbed a wad of cash from the back of his belt. "Nothing?" he asked, holding the stolen money up.
Roy froze, not turning to face them. "It's-not what it looks like," he said hesitantly. He took a second to think of a defense and turned around slowly. "I mean, that store owner won't miss it, he offered me a reward anyway. Besides, I deserve it. Guy wouldn't have any of his money back if I hadn't stepped in."
Mallory kept her face hard and blank, but it broke her heart to see the man that had been like a brother to her when she'd first joined the team reduced to this.
"Dude, are you even listening to yourself?" Wally asked.
Roy snatched the money from Oliver. "Look, I need it! I need it to find Speedy, the real Roy Harper. A search like that is expensive. Especially when the rest of you have all given up."
"Oh, stop it, will you? I'm sick of your "the real Roy" crap," Mallory said, stepping forward. "You are real. You have every right to live your life, but you won't. You don't have to punish yourself for existing, which is exactly what you've been doing for the last five years."
Canary walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Roy, I know you feel lost, but that doesn't mean you're alone."
Roy looked at her hand, then glared at her. "I'm not the one that's lost."
He turned again to go, and Canary crossed her arms. "When was the last time you trained? The last time you slept?"
He hung his head. "Don't even start. I'm in the best shape of my life."
Mallory recognized Canary's stance change as she said, "oh, really?" She attacked him from behind without warning, and he backed up until he was at the edge of the roof, not landing one blow or even a block. He lost his balance and Canary grabbed his chest strap to keep him from falling. "Best shape of your life?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "That was me holding back. Way back." Her voice grew more gentle as she continued, "you used to treat your body like a temple, but now…"
He shoved her arm away, but he lost his balance when she let go and he fell to his knees. His voice gained a level of vulnerability as he shut his eyes. "My body's no temple," he said quietly, "it's a cheap knockoff. A clone."
Everyone stared at him in pained shock. Mallory felt a sharp pang go through her chest at his words. No one knew what to say to him. She took a half a step towards him, wanting to say something, anything, that would help him.
"Roy," she said quietly, "you're not worthless. You have people who love you and will stand by you. But we can't help you if you don't want to be helped. Please, Roy, let us help you," she practically begged.
He didn't look at her, and Green Arrow walked over. "Roy, come back to Star City. It'll be like old times, you and me, training, fighting crime, just hanging out, shooting-."
Roy's hands clenched into fists and he pushed himself to his feet, leaving Mallory kneeling where he had been. "I think you're confused, probably thinking of the other guy. The original, the one you stopped looking for. Me, I'm just–"
"We get it," Jim said sharply, cutting him off, "you're a clone. But you're not the only clone on this rooftop, and I know from personal experience how tough it was to come to grips with being a copy of someone else. That's why I gave up my identity as Guardian, so that I could figure out exactly who Jim Harper is supposed to be."
"That's not the only thing you gave up," Roy spat.
Jim sighed. "Roy, you know we both spent years looking for the original Speedy, and everyone else here did the same. We never found him because the Light didn't keep him alive. It was Cadmus policy to delete the source material. He's dead, brother. Which is all the more reason you have to live, to honor the Roy that was."
Roy shut his eyes, looking away, and Mallory went back to stand with Wally and Dick, watching as her friend turned that over in his mind and hoping that this time, something would click inside him. He sighed and went to sit on one of the fan blocks on the roof.
"I'm whelmed by all this attention," he said after a moment. He looked up at everyone standing in front of him, and his eyes settled on Wally. "What are you even doing here, West? I thought you ditched the hero game."
"Ditching the game doesn't mean ditching my friends," Wally said. "And before you round back to the original Roy again, let's face the facts. He was never our friend."
Roy narrowed his eyes, and Dick took over. "We've all done the math. Speedy was abducted before any of us met."
"You're the guy we trained beside, fought beside. You're the only you we know," Wally finished.
Roy looked up at them, and Mallory considered the fact that he hadn't done the math before.
"You're our friend. Just 'cause you're a clone with anger management issues doesn't change that," Dick said.
Wally smiled a little and added, "Seriously, have you met Superboy?"
Roy shifted his attention to Mallory, tilting his head. "New suit?" he asked. Mallory tilted her head, not answering. "Did you change it to look like mine cause you joined the Justice League?" he scoffed. "I always thought you'd be better than that. Guess I was wrong."
She narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, I did join the League. You know, I once knew someone who would have been proud of me for it, and he would have been flattered that I used his suit to design my new one. I used to know someone who I would have given my life for, because he was someone I trusted, looked up to, and he treated me like family. He let me sleep on his couch, got me through moving out of my parents' house, helped me fit in with the team, interrogated my first boyfriend, and made me a better hero just by being in my life. I really miss that person."
Roy scoffed again. "That was a long time ago," he said.
She raised an eyebrow, making a point of looking his beaten and battered body up and down. "Yeah, it was," she said, her voice hardening.
Roy hung his head slightly, studying the floor. "All done?" he asked, the question directed to everyone. No one said anything, and he stood up, looking at each of them. "You want to salvage someone's soul? Go get Kaldur to see the light. From what I hear, he needs course correcting, but leave me out of it."
It felt like a punch to the gut, but Mallory stayed strong as he pushed past her, Wally, and Dick, but he paused at the edge of the roof and turned back to them, his face hard.
"Write me off. Or don't. Either way, blow."
He jumped off the roof, and they heard the clatter as he landed on the next roof. They looked at each other gravely, no one saying anything for a long moment as their failure sank in.
The first one to say anything was Oliver. He looked around at the group, his face showing false hope. "Maybe he'll think about it and change his mind. Or maybe we can find him again and talk to him when he's not so irrational."
Mallory looked at Dick and Wally, seeing her own thoughts written on their faces. She shook her head, her heart heavy as she said, "no. That was our last chance."
It was a little after midnight when Mallory finally got back to the cave. She expected everyone to be asleep, but she found Conner and Wolf sitting in the living room, staring at nothing. She sank to the seat next to him, and they both sighed heavily.
"Where were you all night?" Conner asked, not looking at her.
"Ollie and Dick found Roy. I went with them to try and talk some sense into him."
Conner nodded. "Did it work?" he asked, but he already knew the answer.
Mallory shook her head. "Nope. He's running himself to the grave, he looks horrible. He's lost, he's not going to let anyone in. He doesn't even think he's worth anything." Conner listened without interrupting, and when she was done, she added, "so what's wrong with you?"
"I went to confront Ugly and Whisper, they came out of hiding tonight. I was going to bring you, but you were otherwise occupied, and so was everyone else, so I brought Blue. You know, I found out why he's always talking to himself."
"Why's that?" Mallory asked.
"The scarab is an artificial intelligence, it tells him what to do."
"Huh," Mallory murmured, wondering now more than ever about the backstory of the Blue Beetle. The events of the night were still heavy in her mind, though, so she tucked the questions away for another time. "So what happened?" she asked.
"They woke up the Apalaxian husks that were in the Hall, and they almost blew up a nuclear reactor."
Mallory raised her eyebrows with dull surprise. "Sounds like you had a long night," she mentioned. "So, what happened with Ugly and Whisper?"
Conner sighed. "Well, Blue locked them down, and when we got back to them, someone had gotten there first." Mallory looked at him, dread in her chest as she waited to hear about their enemies' fates. "They're alive, and their bodies are still working the way they're supposed to, but they aren't there, they're minds checked out or something. The doctors said it was like a vegetative state, but they didn't say if they would ever recover. And to top it all off, look where we are, sitting here alone telling each other how bad our nights were."
Mallory sighed and glanced at the clock, then looked at him and said joylessly, "Yeah, well, happy Valentine's Day."
He sighed, looking down at the rooms. "Guess this year isn't going to be much better than the last," he muttered.
Mallory shrugged. "Well, at least the holidays aren't so far." She leaned her head on his shoulder, giving him a side hug. "At least we still have our family," she said.
He nodded, but he didn't smile, and Mallory knew he was thinking about Megan, and Kaldur, and she still had Roy on her mind. She sighed. They stayed like that for a long time, feeling empty and alone together.