Chapter Sixteen

"A man approached a memorial and read his name on it."

Two days later, haggard but determined, Kyle Rayner entered the Titans' Main Tower. He leaned against the door as the room he had called together watched his every movement.

Kyle had never been like Hal or Guy, never good at being the center of attention. Having all the eyes in the room on him made part of Kyle want to curl up and shut out the world until they all went away because he knew they were all expecting him to puff out his chest and be someone he wasn't.

Kyle never had someone to believe in him. To trust him so fully; even the people he saved looked at him with an underestimating gaze. If he caught them in midair they clung like they expected him to drop them, if he saved them from being crushed by one thing or another they acted as if he couldn't hold his construct.

And yet Arley just looked at him. She trusted him. He was going to make her proud. That was why he needed Arley back. She didn't know him anymore than he knew her and yet she looked at him in a way no one else ever had.

"I found Arley," Kyle announced loudly and for a moment the room got quite. And then suddenly, with the tact of an atomic bomb, the room exploded around him.

Everyone seemed to jump to their feet simultaneously, "I've already spoke with the Guardians—"

"—The hell do you mean you've already spoken to the Guardians? When the hell did you find her!" Guy shouted as he leapt to his feet. Kyle turned to him if only because he was the loudest in the room. "Why the hell didn't you call us first!"

Red Arrow though, not unbeknownst to Kyle, had gone quiet. Dick Grayson and Kaldur'ahm had both jumped to their feet, barking orders at the Titans-main team, telling them to prepare both the ship the Titans used to get around and the Med Bay.

They were going to find Arley.

Kyle's eyes narrowed at them.

Wally West, unlike his lab-made friends, had gone quiet, pale and clutching his seat, almost as if he was waiting for Kyle to announce that he hadn't really found Arley. Almost as if he were waiting for Kyle to announce that no actually, this was all just some kind of sick prank he was playing.

"I found her two days ago."

"Kyle!" Hal shouted. Behind him Kyle watched as amidst the commotion, Beast Boy transforming into a gnat, slipping away.

"Quite!" Batman's voice raised. The hairs on the back of Kyle's neck stood on edge but he didn't flinch. As much as everyone seemed to have a problem with it— everyone but Arley; she had been so welcoming, so happy for him —he was a Green Lantern. Unmovable in the face of fear. "Though it pains me to say it, Guy is right. Why did you wait two days?"

"Because I'm not stupid enough to believe I can keep her hidden."

"Son, what are you talking about?" Superman asked, he'd saddled up behind Batman, as if he was expecting some kind of fight from the Lantern; everyone in the room was either looking at Kyle like they couldn't wait to get their hands around his neck, or like he'd grown a second head and they were waiting for him to explain it away.

"Arley told me exactly who she knows for a fact are sleeper agents and while I knew they'd find out that I met up with her sooner or later, I wasn't going to say anything until I had a plan in place."

"A plan?" Batman repeated.

"That's great!" The Flash said over the Dark Knight, he turned to Hal and Wally, who was still sitting, "Once we root them out she'll be able to—"

Red Arrow wasn't quick enough to grab whatever he'd had hidden in his belt before Beast Boy— the only one Kyle had prepped with his plan; there was just something about the other hero that seemed inherently trustworthy enough for Kyle to bet the proverbial house on him —had snuck up behind Red Arrow, wrapping himself around the archer in the form of a boa constrictor.

"What the hell!" Oliver— Green Arrow —snapped, jumping to his feet. Before he could take a step forward Kyle had boxed Red Arrow into an unbreakable construct. "Damnit Kyle let him out!"

"Sorry Arrow, I can't. The thing Constantine's been keeping from us the past two weeks is that the original sidekicks are clones."

"What?"

Kyle looked at Batman, a man supposedly unbreakable and how his face fell as he looked at Dick Grayson. Dick looked at Kyle and then Kaldur'ahm and then Wally, both of whom had begun looking at each other expectantly.

Like they were waiting for the other to pull what Red Arrow had tried to.

"From what I saw, Superboy wouldn't hurt Arley. Not for anything, but," Kyle explained, "A Light's sleeper agent sent to kill her though, assigned to keep her away from Corps, he would. They would. And they'd sure as hell do their hardest to make sure it wouldn't lead back to them."

Wally West jumped to his feet, the tips of his ears red. Kyle to see the gears behind his eyes turning.

"You attacked her!" Wally West snapped in Red Arrow's direction. "You son of a bitch!" Kyle was sure that if he hadn't boxed Red Arrow into a construct that the speedster would be on top of him, hands wrapped around Red Arrow's neck.

Sleeper agent or not, whatever this Wally West felt for Arley was real. And maybe that was worse than whatever Arley was going through looking for the original copy because this one— this Wally; this clone —cared for someone who loved a version of him.

Him but not.

"I'm no sleeper agent," Dick Grayson declared.

"Neither am I," Kaldur'ahm agreed.

"She's sure?" Hal asked lowly; steadily.

"She took a memeber of the Light hostage looking for information Hal. Information that they gave her. She's not crazy."

"She's okay?" No. Kyle had seen it in the way her hands shook and the way her chest quivered with every deep breath. Arley was so far from okay only a time machine could help her at this point.

"As okay as she can be," Kyle said instead, nodding. There was so much more to tell Hal, he didn't need to know his girl was hanging on by a thread on top of that.

"Alright then," Hal turned to Manhunter. "Protocol Brownout."

The Martian had only just closed his eyes when the three original sidekicks— along with the other Titans in the room, including Beast Boy —dropped to the floor unconscious.

"Harold!" The Flash snapped angrily, at the side of the clone who looked like his nephew.

"I'm sorry Barry but it had to be done, you know it did. Especially if Kyle is going to tell us everything." Everything in Hal Jordan's expression told Kyle that it wasn't an option. Releasing the construct he had around Red Arrow Kyle walked up to the table where he sat, several eyes bore heavily into him.

"They're alive," Kyle said, "The originals I mean. Arley said she knows they're alive and she's going to find them before she goes after Savage."

"Did she tell you where they were?" Oliver snapped from Red Arrow's side. Kyle could see his and the other League members' minds all racing. Their sidekicks weren't their sidekicks except for the fact they were because these were the boys they'd been around for however many years.

"She doesn't know exactly, she has a lead though and she said she was going to run it down when I left."

"Did she say anything else?"

"Did she give you a number to reach her?" Guy asked, "A place to meet?" His voice was desperate.

Kyle had never known Guy Gardner before Arley's disappearance, just the version that existed after. Kyle had been told that before the coma he'd been in and before Arley's capture that Guy Gardner had been a riot. Usually a riot in all sense of the word but he was someone who would bring a smile to your face; the only Guy Kyle knew though, was far from that. He was rough and tough and more often than not entered every fight like he didn't actually care what happened to himself.

This Guy Gardner, just like Arley was hanging on by a thread.

"No. I gave her my number though, she knows to call no matter what and the Guardians know I'm staying planet side."

"Is that why you were talking to them?" John asked.

"Sort of."

"What's the other reason Rayner?"

"The reason Arley was held was because Savage wanted to know about the Corps."

"Wait," Superman said, "I thought you found a disposal order Bruce?"

"I did."

"Well Arley would never open her mouth," John said to which Kyle nodded in agreement. "So why would the Light kill Arley if they didn't get what they wanted?"

"Because they're working with Sinestro now." Hal's knees buckled.

"What?"

"Oa's been put on high alert," Kyle told his fellow Lanterns, ignoring the archer's question. "The council's been told of Arley's plan to take down Savage and at this point probably Sinestro—"

"—The hell she can, she doesn't have a working ring!" Hal snapped worriedly.

"Which is why the rest of you haven't been called back. Ganthet wants Arley found, he's sure she knows more than she realizes; it's why they're picking through who to send to Earth and who to keep on honor guard." It was all hands on deck, if helping Arley meant finding Thaal Sinestro and stopping Vandal Savage a known Lantern Killer then the Guardians would do whatever they could.

"Good. That's good-Guy," Hal began to order, "I want you to call Kilowog, Arisia, Kats. Get Tomar here too, tell the Guardians to send whoever else they want but we need them-and Ch'p, we need him and Laira. If we're going to help Arley out we're going to be proactive about it damnit!"

"Don't tell me what to do asshole," Guy snapped only to turn his back to them and began using his ring to patch himself through to the council.

"Hal," Barry snapped, suddenly in front of the eldest Lantern, "What about the boys?"

Hal placed his hand on Barry's shoulder, "Don't worry Barry we'll find them."

"That's not what I meant, I meant what do we do with the boys here?" Barry asked with a pinched expression.

"Oh." Hal turned to Batman who had done little but stare at an unconscious Dick Grayson. "Kyle?"

"Yeah?"

"You and the others take them to the Medbay, Manhunter?" The Martian hummed out a reply, "See what you can find, maybe they know something Arley doesn't."

"Understood." The Martian nodded. With a wave of his hands the four ex-sidekicks levitated off the ground.

"And Kyle?" Hal asked softly as the Los Angeles based Lantern began to stand from his seat.

"Yeah?"

"Arley, she knows we never stopped looking right?" Kyle smiled at Hal, clapping the older man on the shoulder.

"Of course she does." He didn't mention though, the surprise he'd seen on her face when he'd told her that. Hal didn't need to know that even his own kid doubted them all he needed to know was that, "She loves you Hal."

Hal's eyes shone with unshed tears. Kyle could feel it in his chest, they were so close to bringing Arley home.

…

"Fuck you, you whore!" Arley snapped as she looked down at the plus four Superboy had slapped down. Underneath it laid three other plus fours.

Artemis let out a choked laugh as the Lantern continued to swear at the half-Kryptonian. "I should have left your ass in DC!"

"Yeah-yeah whatever," Superboy replied with a roll of the eyes and a sharp smirk, one that made the blonde's own brows quirk upwards. "I can't hear you over those twelve cards you're picking up."

"I can't wait to kill you!"

"Arley!" M'gann chided. Artemis watched as the Lantern sat back on her heels— the five of them and Wolf were in some building in North Carolina, it was the first place they had stopped since Milwaukee —and chewed the inside of her cheek.

"Whatever," Arley grumbled as she counted out twelve cards to palm in the right of her hand.

"The color is yellow."

Dubbilex placed down a yellow plus two.

"Fuck you!" Artemis snapped, head turned in the genomorph's direction.

"Artemis!" And though she felt bad at the Martian's chiding, Artemis smiled— really, genuinely, smiled —for the first time in months.

"Sorry."

"Nonono," Arley tutted from her spot in the circle. "I can't be the only sore loser here."

"So you admit you're losing?" Superboy asked.

"I will kill you."

"Do it." And if Artemis caught sight of a dusty pink blush rising to Superboys cheeks as Arley growled at him, she didn't mention it. Though that wasn't to say, she didn't share a questioning look with M'gann.

Because she did. Not that she got response of any kind other than a sad and pitiful pointed look in the clone's direction.

Oh, damn.

…

After Manhunter had finished with the other boys and deemed that they were the real deal, not some well funded trick, he had then gone off to rifle through Roy's— not Roy; the boy in the Titans interrogation room wasn't the same boy he had adopted at thirteen —mind, Oliver made sure he was there. Not just in the room, but hand in hand with Manhunter and Batman, in the clone's mindscape because didn't care if this Roy wasn't his Roy, this Roy had his son's face.

This Roy was all he had left of his Roy at the moment.

This Roy was, at least partially, his Roy. He brought out the same fatherly feeling the original had always brought out; he was a clone, not someone in a mask or shifted to look like but rather his son.

The boy he took in all those years ago.

Only it wasn't. This Roy wasn't that Roy. Because the memories that floated by, the originals only started a few years ago. The copies of memories outnumbered the original ones that started at age fourteen.

When Roy had been captured.

Oliver could remember that. Roy had snuck out in an attempt to capture the man who was behind a new meta-drug popping up— the drug turned everyday humans into super powered beings with less than honorable intentions more often than not —only to be captured and brought from Star City, California to the Himalayan Mountains.

Oliver had found Roy in a cell, beaten and bloody and at the time when he had said all the people who took him wanted were names it had been believable.

Back then Superheroes had only just stepped into the spotlight, he himself had only just joined the Justice League.

Someone wanting to know who he and the other Leaguers were, wasn't a stretch.

But that wasn't the case; Oliver watched as Lex Luther, Ra's Al Gul and Vandal Savage and Sportsmaster all crowded around a stoic not-Roy. They were in the same warehouse Oliver and Batman had long ago found this imposter in.

The original— his boy; his son —podded and missing an arm several feet away.

Oliver's mother, before her death, had told him how her heart had broken when he had disappeared, unsure if he was alive or dead, and at the time he hadn't understood. She'd told him there was certain pain— agonizing, heart wrenching pain —that only parents experienced.

Even when Roy had gone missing Oliver hadn't understood because he had known he would get him back but now, staring at his boy, podded up and armless, Oliver Queen finally understood what he mother had spoken about.

"You will be the best hero you can be," Vandal Savage sneered with a smirk, "You will rise above your peers and become a member of the Justice League."

This not-Roy— this clone —didn't answer. He simply stood there with a blank expression on his face, only crumbling when Savage swung, hitting him across the face.

So this was who had hurt him; Oliver hadn't ever found the henchmen who had attacked him. He had kept the case open for years, looking for the men who had taken and hurt Roy all those years ago but lead after lead had always ended in one brick wall after another.

For years no lead had been brought to fruition. Years.

Roy had been gone longer than Oliver had known him.

"Did he know?" Oliver found himself asking Manhunter. Batman stood between them, stoic and quiet, taking everything before them in.

"Did he know what?" Manhunter responded.

"About Arley? About your niece?" Manhunter didn't respond, the alien simply closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

The scene changed before Oliver's eyes.

"I remember this," Batman murmured.

"What?" Oliver's brows punched; the Dark Knight didn't respond. Instead he simply watched on at the clone's memory.

Not-Roy was sneaking into Cadmus labs, he was no longer in his Speedy getup but rather the new Red Arrow regalia he'd taken to donning after that fateful fourth of July.

"A high speed elevator?" Not-Roy blinked. "Nothing to hide my ass." Not-Roy scoffed. "Don't worry Greenie, I'm coming."

Oliver watched as Roy grabbed something from his utility belt and pressed it against the elevator's door before he began to pry it open.

Once the doors were open Oliver watched as Roy's clone breathed in deeply as he fired an arrow into the top of Elevator shaft. It was a grappling arrow, one made for situations just like this.

"Alright, let's see how far down you go."

Not-Roy then propelled himself down the shaft, fifty two sub-levels until he came to the very bottom of Cadmus' hidden laboratory. He only hesitated for a moment before he, like before, used the gadget in his belt to pry open the doors.

The hallway he had come to was not a long and dark corridor, but instead a large hollowed out cave. Purple pods and machines stuck out of the cavern walls and the few lights that illuminated the cave made the rocks around them glow a pinkish red almost as if the walls were made of flesh.

The League had still yet to dig out all fifty two subfloors of Cadmus' leaving Oliver to marvel at the corridor as Roy— not-Roy —drew his bow and noticed an arrow, ready for a fight.

Roy went left at the corridor's fork, his weapon drawn only to pause when a low sounding shrieking— screaming; Arleys blood curdling screams —could be heard.

Oliver's heart leapt into his throat. He wasn't like Barry or Bruce, he hadn't known Arley at eight or nine but he had met her at twelve and he had watched her grow and mature and she wasn't his kid anymore than Dick or Wally or Kaldur were but God did he care for her as if she were.

Bats set a hand on Oliver's shoulder as Not-Roy moved forward, down the cavernous corridor. His knuckles were white, his shoulders were pushed back.

He looked ready for a fight.

The screams got louder and louder and then they stopped. Cut short and worryingly so; this was a memory and Oliver knew Arley was alive but his gut twisted and churned and his heart squeezed in his chest.

Not-Roy sucked in a deep breath as he came to the first and only door in the corridor. He rolled his shoulders and kicked in the door.

Arley hung limply from the ceiling, her wrists bound by chains. Arley's shirt was torn, Sportsmaster had a cattle prod in his hand. There were knives of all kinds of knives lined up on a metal rollaway cart next to him.

He was smiling. Blood covered his hands.

Arley's blood.

Shock didn't flutter over his face. His smile never left, a sick kind of glee came to life behind Sportsmaster's eyes.

And before Roy— Not-Roy, this boy whose heart was pounding so loud in his eyes Oliver could hear it —could release his arrow Oliver watched as Sportsmasters lips moved, saying something, causing this imitation of his boy to freeze.

Every muscle of this Not-Roy locked up. And Sportsmaster approached. Oliver waited with a baited breath as the villain circled.

"How many times do we need to do this Red Arrow?" Sportsmaster snapped tiredly, as if he were giving Oliver's boy— was he even Oliver's boy anymore; had he ever been —a lecture.

Not-Roy didn't answer. Sportsmaster continued on. "Take a good look at her." Red Arrow did. Even in this frozen state his lip wobbled. He was fighting every iota of programming built inside of himself to get free and save Arley. "And forget you were ever here. Forget whatever lead led you here and go back and wait for whatever League member is coming to get you."

And he did. Never even looking back Oliver watched as this version of Roy turned his back on a bleeding and strung up Arley, not flinching as Sportsmaster unshackled her and she hit the ground with a thud.

Oliver and Bruce and Manhunter all floated in Not-Roy's mindscape, each paler than the other. Oliver wanted to puke; he knew he would once he was back in his body and able to.

What Oliver wasn't sure about though, was if he would be able to look Hal in the eyes when he came to.

Arley's screams still rang loudly in his ears.

That was what they had all been complicit in. Hal and Guy and John— Wally and even Roy, this not actual version of his boy —they had all been sure Arley was alive and out there and they had never stopped looking.

What kind of heroes were they— could they call themselves —if they allowed that to happen to one of their own?

What kind of hero was Oliver?

…

Wally West woke up in the medical bay of Titans Tower in a bed next to a groggily looking Dick Grayson and Kaldur. Wally didn't bother to sit up right away, not when a face immediately came to mind.

Roy.

Cadmus' clone. Mole.

Wally fisted the bedsheets he was on top of as tears gathered in the corner of his eyes.

Kyle's claim that he and the rest of the others were clone's rang out in the back of his mind. He couldn't be.

He loved Arley. He loved her more than life and air and Wally knew people always said that, that every writer ever had written just that at least once in their lifetime but Wally knew he meant it. He knew he'd tear his own heart out and give it to Arley if she needed it.

If she asked for it.

Those feelings couldn't be faked.

Could they? Was he some cheap knock off and did the real Wally feel something more than him? Had he actually put his money where his mouth was and already given his life for Arley?

"Are we clear?" Dick asked lowly. Kyle and Captain Marvel and their mentors sans Batman were all in the room with them.

"Yes," Aquaman nodded, "None of you are clone's."

Oh.

"But Roy is?" Kaldur asked.

Wally just blinked.

So he hadn't died for Arley. He hadn't tried to find her hard enough. He had left her behind; he, him, not some dark shadow group that played him like a puppet on the string.

"Yeah," Barry said softly, "Roy-the one we've known all these years was a Light plant."

"When you say all these years—"

"—Back when he was fourteen, before we brought you boys out to the public, do any of you remember when Roy went missing?"

No.

Wally shifted on the hospital bed. He watched as Kaldur shook his head but Dick nodded. Barry looked at Kaldur.

"Maybe this is before your time-Wally, you were in your coma." The downside of giving yourself superspeed was the temporary coma that followed after the initial superpower-giving explosion. "Roy was working a case all on his own when he was captured. It took us three months to find him, in that time he'd been cloned and that force grown and swapped out for the Red Arrow we all know now."

"Why?" Kaldur asked, his voice raw. He had always been the closest to Roy, "What was the Lights endgame."

"The Justice League," Aquaman said, "For some reason the Light programmed this Roy with a drive to join the Justice League. It's why he left that day in the Hall, he didn't see our denying you all access of the Watchtower as a slight to his pride but rather as an obstacle to his pre-programmed end goal."

The day Arley had been captured. The day they had all left her behind followed after Roy and his righteousness.

It had been the Light.

"With the Titans branching out and joining the League last year whatever information the Light wanted about the League-from the Watchtowers database could be collected."

"Did he know?" Everyone turned to Wally. Wally looked at Kyle. "Did he know?"

"About being a clone? No."

"And Arley?" Wally threw his legs over the bed. The sheets clenched in his hand as he looked down at the linoleum flooring. "Did he know about her?"

"Wally it's not his fault, he didn't know what he was doing, from what Manhunter says he wasn't in control of himself or his actions. He has a trigger word."

So that was a yes. Roy knew about Arley. Wally didn't care how long he knew about her, all Wally cared about was the fact that he knew.

Arley had suffered and he knew. That was all Wally needed to know.

He was off.

When he had been fifteen Wally hadn't been able to vibrate through walls. At sixteen he had only just managed to shift through bars but at nineteen Wally had no problem running past the four League members and down to where he knew Roy— the clone —would be.

Wally had the clone against the wall, one arm against his throat and the other fisting the material of his shirt in the span of half a second.

Wally wasn't an angry person. He wasn't quick to anger and he had never ran hot before but God in the moment did he want blood.

This fake Roy's blood.

"You piece of shit!" Roy didn't blink, he didn't fight. His lips just twisted downwards as Wally pushed him against the wall. "You knew! You knew about her!"

"Wally!" Barry was there, pulling at Wally's shoulders.

"Get off me!" He knew. Had he hurt her? Had he been ordered to torture her when Sportsmaster got to tired, to sticky with Arley's blood?

"Damnit Wally!" A second pair of hands grabbed at his other side, prying him off the clone.

The clone didn't bother to stand on his own, rather, he slid down the wall as Oliver moved to his side. His eyes though— his sad, heavy, devastated looking eyes —never left Wally's.

In fact they stayed locked together, green and brown, until Barry and Batman managed to pull him into the other room.

"I said get off me!" Wally snapped as he shoved the Dark Knight off him. Barry, though kept a tight grip on his arm.

"I will when I know you're not going to go back in there!"

"The hell I won't! He knew!" He had led them out of the hall that day. Sparked and flamed a righteous fury in them and causing them to leave Arley to fend for herself against the Light.

"It wasn't his fault, Wally." Barry said again, "Every time he found her meaning to save her."

Something in Wally cracked. He wasn't sure if it was audible but he was sure it was visible, because Barry's face fell with his.

"He found her more than once?" Wally could have found her.

He hadn't.

She had suffered.

"Kid," Barry said softly.

Wally felt his knees buckle. He had left Arley. He had failed her. He would have hit the ground if not for Barry catching him.

Tears that had welled up in the corners of his eyes began to fall and not for the first time since Arleys disappearance Wally couldn't help but think maybe everything would be easier— better —if he were dead.

Because if he were dead he'd be a clone and then maybe he would have an excuse for failing the one person he loved with the entirety of his soul.

…

Arley had her shotgun in her lap. The lights of the jeep they'd all stolen were dead; the engine rumbled quite in the muggy, swampy night. Superboy sat in the passenger seat, Dubbilex behind him and Artemis behind her. M'gann sat in the middle.

They were in Florida.

Cameron Mahkent had given them the location of four new Light bases. One of which dealt in acquisition; Arleys eyes flickered to meet M'gann's in the rearview mirror.

"Ready to get your shit back?" The former Lantern smirked at her purposeful mispronunciation, playing on the word shit as it— at least the way Arley said it —sounded like ship .

"More than ready."

"That's what I'm talking about." And then, with a leaden foot, Arley pressed down on the gas and rammed the jeep past the barbed wire fence surrounding the Lights warehouse and into the building where with a quick beating heart— Arley could hear her heart beating in loudly in her ears as if they were war drums, urging her on —she and the others rolled out and quickly got to work because she might be broken, that girl she once was might be dead, but this— fighting tooth and nail —she could do.

It was all, Arley was sure, she could do.

Notes: Feel free to let me know all your thoughts about this chapter in the comments down below!