Chapter Thirteen

"What the hell is a tragedy? I am."

Arley, Superboy, M'gann— who had once again transformed to look like the star of her favorite old Television show Hello Megan —and Dubbilex who had not only put an itchy wig on, covered his blue face in concealer but also had the drawstring of his hoodie pulled tight enough so that only his dark eyes showed, all sat in some Milwaukee diner.

Wolf sat in their latest stolen car up the block asleep, with the bone Superboy had stolen from the last PetSmart they'd gone through, clutched between his paws.

Arley's index finger beat against the table's glossy top.

It'd been a week since Klarion's death and the scales between Order and Chaos had— obviously, to anyone who knew —been thrown out of balance.

Arley couldn't tear her eyes away from the diner's television; another monsoon had wreaked havoc in Indonesia, a fourth nearly-off the richter scale earthquake had shaken the entire state of California and the stock market was dipping due to the various and continuous natural disasters the seemed to be plaguing the planet.

And on top of all that— Arley had found out when she had handed Constantine the Helmet of Fate —the Light had her boys.

The Light had to have them. They were alive, their souls weren't able to be found which meant they were alive, probably locked away in the same kind of pod Arley had originally found Superboy in, until they could be of use to Savage.

"Arley," M'gann's foot tapped Arley's under the table, "You need to stop watching that."

"Why?" Arley scoffed, only looking at the Martian when the news switched to commercials. "It's my fault. I should see what I did."

Innocent people were dead and that was on her and if she couldn't put the wrong end of her gun in her mouth— she would not die before Savage and Sportsmaster, no matter how much she wanted to —then she would suffer silently; she would watch what she did and allow it to eat up what little she had inside herself until she truly was nothing lwft.

"You don't know that," M'gann argued.

Arley smiled softly at the Martian girl, "Of course I do Megs. Constintine and Kent warned us what would happen."

"And the point still stands," Superboy spoke up, "This—" Superboy's head bobbed in the direction of the television, "—Is still better than Klarion being alive. You know that." And yet no matter how true that was, Superboy didn't say that last part with his usual bravo.

Because no matter how much they— how much Arley —knew the world was better off with Klarion dead it didn't make up for the fact people who had nothing to do with this war they were fighting were dead.

For all the blood they were all slowly accumulating on their hands, none of them wanted the blood of innocent people.

Of collateral damage.

"Yeah," Arley said softly, only to straighten when a young man with dark hair and a pointed nose stood from his seat across the room. Arleys shoulders pushed themselves backwards. "Go time."

Superboy threw a handful of crumpled bills on the table as he and Arley and M'gann and Dubbilex all slowly began to stand.

The four of them waited for the young man to leave the dinner and head halfway down the street before they too exited the building; Arley kept her eyes on the middle of the young man's back as one by one the others began to break away from her.

Dubbilex crossed the street as he headed to the car where he would be waiting to drive getaway. M'gann waited a moment before she shifted, turning herself invisible to the naked eye; she moved forward so that she could stay in step with the young man they were following while Superboy turned right, into an alleyway. He would take to the roofs.

Arley thumbed the blade in her pocket as she turned with the dark haired man. As she followed him into an alleyway three blocks down from the one Superboy had gone off in, Arley was struck with the eerie reminder of the lion prides she would see on National Geographic.

This wasn't like their previous push back against the Light, this wasn't simply hitting a lair or a lab and ruining; they were hunting.

Arley hung back as she followed the young man for another block, worried he would spot her.

It was only on the fifth block— after a sharp right turn —that Arley's breath caught in her throat because the young man she and the others were prowling after had been snatched; an arm had darted out from the alleyway he'd fully yet to pass and snatched him by the collar of his shirt.

Megs? Arlet thought urgently throughout the mindlink.

It's a girl. Blonde. Arley could practically see the girl through M'gann's eyes as she doubled back around the corner; Arley pressed her back against the building's brick corner.

The girl was her age, or at least just about. Straw blonde hair and dark hooded eyes that had been set into a glare. She held the young man Arloey and the others had been following up against a brick wall, a snarl set firmly in place upon her face.

Can you find out more?

"Artey?" The young man chuckled nervously; Arley watched the young man through the link, his eyes dark nervously through M'gann and towards the alleyways opening. Like he was trying to figure out his escape.

Arley's teeth ground together; he couldn't run. She couldn't lose him.

Not when she needed to make everything right.

Give me a moment. And then the connection was cut; Arley felt the pieces of her mind snap back to her as M'gann began searching for answers.

Only Arley had lost her visual; she peaked around the corner and paused. There was no one there; Arley couldn't see into buildings but there was no one in the sparkly parked cars littering the street nor were there any snipers peeking out over the edges of adjacent rooftops.

"Where the hell is he Cameron?" The girl— Artey —snapped.

"Why the hell should I know!" The young man snapped back causing Arley to scoff inwardly. Cameron Mahkent was a leech; he'd been brought up in a life of crime and while he hadn't flourished like some others in his position had, he had never turned tail and run from his father and Light, but instead found his niche by being something more than a henchmen but also something less than a right hand.

A lackey of sorts; the kind of person who could move about a room and no one would notice because he was too pathetic to care about.

It was why Arley was after him. He had to know something about her boys.

"I don't know, maybe because I know you've been in contact with him! Jade told me that much!"

"I'm sorry since when are you listening to Jade now?"

"Maybe since our mothers funeral," the girl Artey snapped. It was silent for a moment; it was that moment Arley felt her mind splinter once more. The splintering was no longer painful; not like it had been that first time, but still, a tingle of uncomfortability ran down Arley's spine as her consciousness shattered amongst herself and her team.

M'gann? What's the situation? Superboy asked tersely. He was perched on the building above Cameron Mahkent and this Artey, ready to jump at Arley's signal.

"Artemis," Cameron said softly. Apologetically.

M'gann didn't answer right away; Arley could feel the cocktail of emotions flowing through the Martian girl. Anger, shock, sympathy.

"Shut up!" She snapped back, "Where is he!"

Megs?

Arley, M'gann said through the mindlink, it was hesitant and shaky and she didn't even need to outright think of what she had planned on saying next because as she stewed for the next right words, Arley already knew them.

Artemis Crock.

Sportsmaster daughter.

A loud buzzing sound encapsulated Arley; all she could hear was that buzzing. The weight of her gun in hand was the only thing keeping her grounded.

Arley spun around the corner, the firearm out in front of her. Her eyes were trained on the blonde. If she didn't enter the alleyway shooting it was only because of the fact Arley remembered M'gann was in that alleyway and while she was invisible she was not intangible.

"What the—" Sportsmaster daughter barely got the second word out of her mouth before Arley took her by her ponytail and forced her away from Cameron Mahkent who, surprisingly, didn't run the moment he was free.

"—Shut up!" Just as Arley had sworn she had felt her ring come to life Arley could swear she ached as she forced the gun under the chin of Sportsmasters daughter.

The serum Dubbliex had given her Boston months ago had fixed her, it had turned her into something else— something not quite human anymore; humans didn't run as fast at her, they didn't heal like nor did have her kind of strength without a lifetime at the gym —and yet as she tightened her grip on the other girls blonde hair Arley didn't feel like this other version of herself.

She felt like the girl who had died in that cell.

"Arley!" Superboy jumped down and M'gann reappeared; the truck they had stolen in the next city over pulled in front of the alleyways entrance. Dubbliex had thrown the doors open for them to jump into.

"Arley?" Cameron Mahkent whispered before grimacing; he pressed his back against the wall of the alleyway. "Fuck me."

Fear was, as clear as day, written across his face.

"Shut up!" Arley screeched, she forced the girl to her knees in front of her. Arley's glock moved from under the chin of Sportsmasts daughter to the very top of the back of her head.

Her hands shook.

Sportsmasters daughter wasn't fighting her. Cameron Mahkent hadn't ripped off his inhibitor bracelet to save Sportsmasters daughter and neither Superboy or M'gann had made a move in Arley's direction.

Her head was spinning.

Years spent in that underground cell, Sportsmaster's laugh and the sound of Vandal Savages chuckle as flashed through the forefront of her mind.

Wally and the boys quickly behind that.

Her mission. The war she was fighting; the fact the boys— her boys; her Wally —were alive but missing.

Arley wanted to kill this girl. She wanted Sportsmaster to hurt; to know that while she was coming after him until she gutted him like the curr he was, nothing was off limits.

No one was.

But Kilowogs Fight smart not hard fluttered through the back of Arleys mind and her finger, on the side of the trigger, twitched.

"You'll never make it out there alive if you don't fight smart kid," Klowog had told her that first time. Arley had been a White Circle at the time; not yet a Lantern but close.

So close.

"And what, you want me to make it out there?" Arley had asked with an attitude. Ever since she had gotten the ring other Corps members looked at her skeptical, like none of them were ready to believe an Earthling child could do right by the ring.

Kilowogs eyes softened at Arley and Arley had immediately felt bad. Ever since she'd been allowed to stay and go through boot camp it had been Klowog, her training officer who took care of her.

He was the one who made sure she ate throughout the day and who bandaged her up after one mishap or another when she refused to go to the medical building.

He was sort of, when he wasn't dropping her in intergalactic volcanos or glacial deserts, like another— but good, if not the best she had ever had —foster parent.

"Of course I want you to make it, kid. You're one of us now." Arley felt warmth flood her from head to toe. She had never been part of something before. "So when you're out there, fight smart, not hard."

Arley moved quickly. She used the butt of her Glocks grip to hit Sportsmaster daughter on the back of the neck the way she'd been taught; the blonde timbered immediately at the hot to her neck.

"Art—" Arley spun. With the hand she wasn't using to hold her gun Arley swung her fist at Cameron Mahkent hard enough that, with a cry, the lackey's head bounced against her fist before bouncing aginst the brick wall he had been up against.

Like Sportsmaster's daughter he too fell to the ally's concrete ground, in unconscious and slightly bloody.

Arley turned to look at Superboy, "She's coming with us. Get them both in the van?"

It wasn't really a question, but Arley, in the absence of Please had phrased it as one.

Superboy nodded only to pause once he had picked both unconscious parties up; "Are you-I mean, Arley."

"I'm fine," Arley lied through her teeth. That was clear enough; it was especially clear a moment later— after Dubbilex and Superboy had both tied their captives up with zip ties —when M'gann touched Arleys shoulder.

Arley hadn't meant to but she had reacted; she spun the Martian against the brick wall Mahkent had been pressed up against; her forearm pressed against M'gann's throat.

The world seemed to pause.

Arley wasn't breathing but her heart beat loudly in her ears; loud enough to remind her of war drums and exploding ships and the sound her voice used to make as it bounced off her cell walls whenever she would scream her throat raw.

M'gann's golden eyes were wide, though not with fear but rather soft with pity.

It's okay , floated through Arleys mind. You're okay now.

Arleys lip trembled. Her arm dropped.

I'm sorry. I'm — M'gann didn't hug Arley but a warmth spread through Arley from the top down, almost as if she were.

It's okay.

But it wasn't. It would never be okay. She would never be okay, not again.

….

Kyle Rayner would never admit it to any living being— and especially not to Guy Gardner least he be metaphorically flogged for the rest of his life —but he liked Katy Perry. He liked Firework the best, Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind?

Because he did.

Long before he had gotten the ring Kyle had felt out of place in the life he was living. He felt like he had been meant for something else— not even something greater, just something different —probably because the life he had been living hadn't been his own.

It'd been his father's; or at least the life his father had been meant to live.

Daniel Rayner had died when Kyle had been six; he had been a Los Angeles firefighter who'd gone down in the line of duty whilst trying to save one of his brothers who'd gotten trapped under a pile of debris. And Kyle's mother had never let him forget that.

Your father would have wanted you to follow in his footsteps.

It was why Sonia Rayner had pushed Kyle into being an EMT and then a firefighter when all he ever wanted to do was draw. Why she had given him her grandmother's rings when he'd gotten his first girlfriend in the eleventh grade— because his parents had been each other's firsts —despite the fact he wasn't even sure he liked his new girlfriend as much as he should have; he had only asked her out because his friend had told him she liked him.

Even after he had gotten his ring nothing had changed; sure he could put light-years between him and his father's memory but the farther he got away from one ghost Kyle always found himself face to face with another.

Your father would have wanted you to follow in his footsteps turned into Arley probably would've figured out a different way to go about this.

Kyle Rayner was used to living with ghosts; he was used to being more haunted house than human. It was why, more than anything he wanted to find Arley Gluck.

Because of he could find her— if they, the Corps, the League, the Titans; anyone really —alive than he wouldn't have shoes to fill or a shadow to fit like an ill tailored suit.

If Arley came back then Kyle could finally get the life he had dreamed about living.

It was why he was on some corner street in the bittercold, waiting out the passing minutes for his informant.

Kyle looked down at his watch.

It was twenty past.

Kyle's stomach churned.

Icicle Jr had been adminit about handing over information on the Light in hopes of being able to finally get out of the life his father had forced him to. He wouldn't have run.

Another minute passed.

"Fuck."

…

Arley and the others were in a condemned rodent infested building; they'd separated both Sportsmasters daughter and Mahkent Jr.

The hunting knife Arley had taken from Cadmus— Sportsmaster favorite —felt heavy in her hand. Her shaky hand.

Arley's heart pounded.

M'gann's fingers were threaded with the ones Arley didn't have wrapped around the blade's hilt.

M'gann had claimed that the unconscious blonde wanted Sportsmaster dead just as much as Arley did. That she had grabbed Icicle Jr just as bloodthirsty and angry as Arley had grabbed her.

But Arley doubted anyone wanted Sportsmaster— and Savage —dead as much as she did.

Arley could remember when Sportsmaster had cut her. It'd been small and then he'd used his fingers to tear and tear until she'd come to have a nearly three inch scar right above her right hip.

He had just wanted the names of the Guardians. Arley has spat in his face; that was her punishment for making him do things the hard way.

"Ready?" M'gann asked.

"Yeah," Arley said with the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, "Sure."

"Alright then."

The unconscious girl grimanced. She twitched. And suddenly they were no longer just standing in the room with Sportsmaster's daughter but rather both Arley and M'gann were in her mind.

Arley believed M'gann. She knew the Martian wouldn't lie to her but she had to see it for herself.

She had to know she could trust the blonde with her people's safety; no matter what M'gann said Arley had to see for herself just why Artemis Crock wanted Sportsmaster— her father —dead.

"This is an early one," M'gann said pointing to an orb the went floating past them. The Martian didn't hesitate before reaching out and pressing her open palm against the early childhood memory.

They were in a tiny apartment living room. The green paint on the walls was peeling and though the carpet in the living room was obviously clean it was still dirty. Years of untreated stains made the rug look older and dingyier.

Artemis sat in the middle of the living room. She couldn't be more than five. An older girl sat on the couch reading a book; though her hair was darker it was obvious they were related. They looked enough alike to be.

It was quiet and then it wasn't. Suddenly and with all the tact of a hurricane two people— Sportsmaster and a woman; one who looked like an older version of the girl on the couch —came into the room.

They were fighting. Sportsmaster had his hand in the woman's hair as he dragged her through the apartment's doorway.

"You idiot!" Arley's heart jumped into her throat at Sportsmasters' raised voice.

The woman's thigh was bleeding. Arley easily enough realized it was a simple graze.

Both girls shot to their feet with cries of protest as Sportsmaster threw the woman to the floor. Artemis Crock took two steps back, away from the dolls she'd been playing with on the floor while the other girl— who couldn't be more than eleven, and even that was pushing it —dropped her book and took three steps forward.

"Stay out of this!" Sportsmaster snapped, pivoting to the girls.

"Leave them alone!" The woman— Artemis Crocks mother —snapped. Despite her bloody like and crumpled form she reminded Arley of those tigers she'd see on the National Geographic channel, ready to ponce and defend.

"Shut up Paula!" And then he kicked her.

"Mom!" Both girls cried out,

"Leave her alone!" The older girl cried. She moved, just as Arley had always moved to stand in front of her foster siblings, the dark haired girl moved to stand in front of her mother.

"Jade—" whatever Artemis Crocks mother was going to say was silenced by Jade pulling a knife. The girl had a fire in her eyes, one Arley had come to know well.

Anger and defiance and spite and the need to do something and bathe her hands in the blood that was owed to her.

"I said leave her alone."

It was quite again. Artemis had crouched behind the couch. She was shaking.

And then there was a bang and a clatter; Sportsmaster had his hand wrapped around Jades throat. The knife had fallen to the ground and Paula, Artemis' mother was on her knees— unable to fully get up —clawing at Sportsmasters leg.

"Let her go!" Paula Crock screamed but Sportsmaster had his hand clamped around his daughter's neck.

"Think you're so tough huh? A big girl Jade?" He was taunting her. Sportsmaster had used that voice when begging Arley to hit him; sometimes he would uncuff her and dare her to try to escape only to hurt her worse than before— everytime —she tried.

"Go to hell!" Sportsmaster hit his daughter hard enough to send her onto the floor, sprawled out and in her mother's arms.

There was a dribble of blood in the corner of the teenage girl's mouth.

All the whole Artemis was half behind the couch, cowering.

The memory ended quickly after that; Sportsmaster had broken Paula's rib and nearly shattered Jades orbital bone with the toe of his boot all while Artemis watched from the corner of the room, horrified.

Arley had felt that girl's fear as the memory had progressed. She could practically taste it.

Arley and M'gann were once more deposited into the space that was Artemis Crocks' mind.

"Another one."

"What?" M'gann blinked.

"I want another one. I want to find out why she's after her old man."

"Arley he beat her mother and sister, Sportsmaster probably beat her too."

"And?" Arley's brow arched, "My foster parents loved beating the shit out of me and I've never gone looking for them, something's happened. And I need to find out why Megs."

M'gann's lips thinned though she nodded nonetheless. She searched through the brightly lit orbs that floated around the blonde mind before picking up a second.

They were back in the apartment. Artsmis stepped through the door this time, older than before. She looked to be as old as her sister had been in that last one.

Sportsmaster sat at the round kitchen table.

"Where the hell have you been?" He snapped as the door shut behind Artemis.

The young girl looked ready for a fight; her eyes were guarded and her face clear of emotion. Her fingers were wrapped tightly around the strap of her bag, like she was ready to use it as a defense weapon at any moment.

"What do you mean where have I been I've been—"

"—Your school called girly," Sportsmaster snapped, "You skipped. Again."

Arley could practically hear the younger girls heart jump in her chest.

"Now where the hell were you?" I won't ask again was heavily implied.

Sportsmaster stood and Artemis took half a step back. Her bag hit the door.

"I was visiting mom. I've been visiting her," Artemis said a moment later, her voice steely and harsh. There was a bite to it that made the corner of Arley's mouth tip upwards.

"And who the hell said you could do that?"

"She's my mom!"

"Watch your tone!" Artemis flinched. It was obvious she tried not to, but she had. Scared as her father stepped out from around the table. "What have I said about keeping your head down!"

"I am."

"The hell you are! Skipping school—"

"—It's not my fault the only time I can see mom is on weekdays!"

Sportsmaster flew. His hand twisted the front of Artemis' shirt as he grabbed her; she struggled against his grip only to be thrown against the corner wall half a second later.

"What did I just say, watch you're fucking tone. I don't need Social Services or anyone else poking around because you're skipping school to see that cunt."

Arley could feel the worry and fear and anger cuddling through Artemis Crocks viens.

" I've already called the prison. You've been taken off the visitor logs."

Heartbreak. Total and complete heartbreak was written across Artemis' face.

"You can't!"

Arley didn't need Artemis to say it, she was in the girl's memories, she knew her mother had several more years in prison before the chance of parole even happened.

Sportsmaster's foot kicked out and hit Artemis in the side.

"Watch your fucking tone and don't try to tell me what I can and can't do!" He then kicked her again; Artemis began to cry. Only these tears were hot and angry. They weren't because of the abuse. "Little bitch."

They were pulled out. Arley's hands were shaking. There was more to it— to this —to Artemis. The former Lantern turned to M'gann.

"One more. Give me something from the last few months. Something from this year."

"You want to watch more of that?" M'gann said in disbelief.

"I want to find out why she's so eager to tear her father apart."

"That wasn't evident enough?" Arley leveled the Martian girl with a flat look when a metaphorical lightbulb went off over her head.

"She mentioned, back in the alley, something about her mother's funeral." Maybe her hunting Sportsmaster had something to do with that; she had alluded to the funeral being the clue that had led her to Icicle Jr.

M'gann twitched, her lips turned down as she moved to float around the blonde's head.

"This one," M'gann said a moment later with a heavy voice. "This one should answer your questions." And then she grabbed the memory and held it against her chest.

Artemis Crock was in Gotham, Arley could see the familiar buildings surrounding the cemetery Artemis was standing in.

The grave in front of her had a casket lowered in it; two handfuls of dirt on top of it. The headstone confirmed what Arley had assumed; the funeral— the burial —had not been too long ago.

Paula Crock. 1960 - 2013; Arley couldn't help but smile at the woman's epitaph.

Forgive me Lord for I have sinned.

The girl from the first memory, her sister, Jade, stood next to her all grown up as well. The air was warm, not sweltering. This wasn't more than a handful of months ago.

"Did you get to see her before she went?" Jade had asked. Her voice was rough and scratchy despite the fact it was softened and quieted for the somber occasion.

Artemis' face twisted; grief rocked through her. "No."

Arley blinked as she slowly absorbed the information Artemis Crocks' memories were giving her.

She was only just eighteen; she'd been fighting with the prison to be put back on the visitors log when Paula had suffered a major heart attack.

The heart attack had been caused due to years of bad health. The bad health had been because Paula had lost a kidney when she'd lost the usage of her legs. Paula Crock had become paralyzed after Sportsmaster had kicked her through a glass ceiling so that he could make a clean getaway.

This was all his fault.

Paula Nguyen Crock was dead and it was Sportsmaster's fault.

"Did you?"

Jade shook her head. "I visited a couple of months ago but work got in the way. The League has me running around-I was going to see her for her birthday."

She had died alone in prison.

Sportsmaster had caused that.

"I hate him," Artemis said thickly. "I hate him so much! I should have left with you—"

"—Don't do that Artemis," Jade said firmly, her hand in-between the space of her sister's shoulder blades. "You know coming with me would have made everything worse."

Artemis shook her head, her eyes still transfixed on her mother's gravestone.

It wasn't fair, Paula was gone and all Artemis had to remember her by were a handful of memories and an old baby quilt.

If Sportsmaster had done— everything; if he hadn't been around —Paula would still be there. Artemis would have a mother and a real home and, with a glance at Jade, a sister.

And that was when Arley could feel it. As the backhoe whirled to life; Artemis Crock wanted her father's head just as Arley wanted Sportsmaster's.

A moment later Arley came to, back in the room with M'gann and Artemis.

Artemis was Sportsmaster's daughter. She had his hair and chin and Arley couldn't help but wonder what else of him she had in her.

Nabu's voice rang out in the back of her mind. "Listen to your heart in your upcoming battles, Green Lantern. It will serve you well. It always has."

Nabu had been— was —Savage's son. Arley didn't care for the Agent of Order and she couldn't say she trusted him but her heart clenched.

Listen to your heart.

Arley hadn't liked Wally at first. He'd been loud and silly, trying to be grown up when he wasn't. She had thought him childish and at nine he was, because that's what nine year olds were.

But then he'd stuck up for her at a West family Christmas party when all she had been for months was cold to him. Because that's the kind of person he was.

It has served you well. "Superboy?" Arley called out, her voice soft. It wasn't even a minute later he was there in the mouth of the crumbling doorway. "Can you put Artemis on the couch?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I'll talk to her when she wakes up."

It always has.

…

Kyle Rayner, not breathing, standing in an almost frozen over alleyway blinked at the bright green environmental playback his ring had constructed.

Because constructed before him was the very girl he was looking for.

Arley Carmen Gluck.

Notes: Hey guys I am so sorry about the long awaited chapter, life is insane at the moment. Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was probably going to be longer until I decided to split it into two parts, one: because I wanted to get a chapter out and two: for flow.

I also hope you liked Artemis' debut! Also more Kyle! So Guy is my favorite Lantern but I hope how you guys liked how I prayed Kyle so far and how I'm going to next chapter!

Feel free to let me know all your thoughts about this chapter in the comments down below! And quick shout out to: xarcadiax, your comment gave me life to finish this part and start on the next chapter, so thank you sm!