Chapter Twenty
"Maybe in another life, huh?"
History may not repeat itself to the letter, but time will often rhyme. Or something; hours after the sun had set and miles away from M'gann and Dubbilex had landed the Bioship, Arley and the others— including Wolf who Superboy had brought along for added numbers —came across a clearing that didn't make sense.
There was no— natural —reason for the clearing. Trees still should have been everywhere and rocks and burrows should still have littered the area making up the clearing and yet in the large clearing before the five young adults there was nothing to be found.
Not a branch or a rock to overturn or even an ant hill to mistakenly step onto was to be found.
History may not repeat, but sometimes the similarities were fucking eerie.
Arley stood in the tree line of the clearing staring at it the same way she had once stared at the high velocity elevator Dubbilex had long ago led her to.
The foreboding feeling that writhed in Arleys stomach was the same feeling she had felt years ago, back when she had stood at the mouth of Cadmus' Laboratories. The knowledge that there was no real turning back sat on her, weighing down upon her shoulders.
This was it; this was what Arley had been fighting towards for months and yet excitement didn't thrum throughout her veins the way it might have a week ago because all Arley could think about was Roy Harper's clone.
"It's just me!"
Arley knew this wasn't the time to doubt herself— to doubt Wally —and yet she couldn't help it. With every thundering heartbeat Arley couldn't help but feel like an idiot.
She'd always known her worth after all.
Street kid, soldier, murderer.
Replaceable .
She'd always been replaceable, nothing special or worthy of saving. Just a placeholder until something better came around.
But Roy was a clone; what she and the others had run into was proof that if anything Roy hadn't found her replaceable. He'd gone into the belly of the beast for her and she owed it to him to drag him back out.
And then— Arley closed her eyes tightly and breathed as she imagined after this fight —they could go after Savage.
Arley wouldn't die until she'd killed Vandal Savage and burnt the remains of the Light down around her. She couldn't.
"What are our coordinates?" Arley asked, while pulling out a flip phone M'gann had bought in some random CVS weeks ago. The minutes were unused and the only number programmed in the device was the one Kyle Rayner had sprawled out onto a dirty napkin.
"Forty-four point forty-two-one and negative one-ten point fifty-eight," Artemis read off the satellite gps they'd pocketed from a Dick Sporting Goods months ago. "Who're you sending it to?"
Arley turned towards the blonde as she flipped the phone shut, not sending the message but saving it for if they needed to send it quickly; "Backup."
Artemis took the answer with a quiet nod as she clipped the gps to the waist of her pants and their minds splintered and melded and a mind-link was formed.
"Okay, Lex, Megs," Arley turned to the Martian and genomorph with a grimace, "Time to start this party. The bigger the better, trees will give us more cover."
"Got it," M'gann replied, eyes turning a familiar milky white as Dubbilex's horns glowed bright red.
Arley's fingers drummed themselves along the underside of the shotgun she'd gotten in Rhode Island already in her hands. Her normal gun with poison soaked bullets was tucked into the waistband of her pants; the promethium sword she'd stolen from Oliver strapped to her back and easily accessible underneath the quiver filled with various trick arrows Artemis had grabbed back at the Arrow Cave.
The nuclear arrow Arley had taken was back in the Bioship, still in the case, awaiting her standoff with Sinestro and Sportsmaster and Savage.
Wolf growled, his fur stood up on its ends as the ground began to shake as the trees behind them all were torn from the ground and levitated into the air; their roots snapping in half as they were jerked forward and thrown into the clearing.
Several more trees were thrown before anything happened.
Superboys brows creased together; "There's a door at our eight, heavy, metal, a couple of hundred feet. Something's coming. Mechanical."
Arley bent her knees and drew the shotgun chest-level.
Game time.
Not even a full moment after Superboy spoke a red robot with glowing orangish-yellow joints— obviously one of TO Morrows creations —hovered over the clearing, its arms crossed over its chest, obscuring whatever glowing insignia Morrow had carved into the metal chest plate.
He looked familiar; something tugged at the back of Arley's mind, telling her there was something about this robot that she knew.
"Arley Gluck, I presume," the robot spoke confidently as it continued to hover.
"Since when do microwaves presume?" Arley called out, "I thought you all worked on cold hard facts."
The robots' face plates didn't move, nor did it make an audible sound. Instead it set itself down atop the hill of trees M'gann and Dubbilex had created. Its arms still crossed over its chest.
"I will give you this one chance, Arley Gluck, turn yourself over peacefully."
"And why would I do that?"
"I have been told to do whatever is necessary to bring you to Vandal Savage. That includes destroying the planet." Arley's brows shot up.
"What do you mean destroying the planet?" Artemis asked, voice raised and arrow already notched.
The robot simply twitched and the ground— not in the clearing but around it; behind and to the sides of Arley and the others —split open.
The change in temperature was instant as the trees around the five all caught fire.
Yellowstone wasn't just the largest park in the county. It wasn't just home to a very legal conundrum known as No-Where's-Land but it also housed a volcano.
One that wasn't just over due to blow by a couple hundred thousand years but if it blew, would practically wipe out all of North America and put a hole in the hemisphere so large humanity as a whole would never be able to recover from.
Arley felt both M'gann and Dubbilex waiver immediately from the heat.
Plans, more often than not, changed, when you constantly put yourself in life or death scenarios of course plans tended to change.
Originally Arley had planned for all five of them— six counting Wolf —to fight their way to the boys, through whatever horid tribulations the Light out in there way.
But that wasn't feasible, not now.
Arley was loyal to a fault. She got attached and she knew it was her fatal flaw; she would sooner hemorrhage out then stop her bleeding heart. It was a terrible quality for a hero, she knew that.
To let the world burn to save a friend— someone she loved —was not heroic.
But Arley wasn't a hero. She'd never been; she was always a soldier. And that entailed leaving no man behind.
Artemis , Arley instructed through the mind-link as she took her first shot at the robot. Get Megs and Lex inside the hideout and lock it.
What ! Artemis hissed. Arley passed M'gann the phone she'd out into her pocket.
Take Wolf too . Arley ordered as she pumped the sawed off shotgun again. She could hear the ground around them splintering more.
We're not leaving you! Dubbilex hissed as he used his powers to toss a lump of Earth at the robot. The machine used one punch to break the buggie sized hunk of crust into a thousand tiny pieces.
The hell you're not! It's too hot! Arley ran left, away from the Lights bunker. Superboy lunged at the robot only to be swatted away and thrown in Arley's direction.
You want us to go into an underground metal box? Dubbilex sniped back.
A metal box that will be heat proof! Arley thought of the Tower of Fate and how any day of the week she'd chose them over revenge. Arley thought— her heart clenched —about how at the end of the day, what mattered the most to her was them and their safety.
We need to get in there anyway to save my boys, this is just us splitting up! Arley fired again, the same time Artemis shot an explosive arrow at the robot.
The explosion didn't even knock the hunk of moving metal off kilter.
Superboy and I will handle the robot for now, call Kyle and tell him it's urgent! And save the boys okay! Just get out of here!
Arley was shit at archery but she had a collapsible crossbow in the quiver strapped to her back and that was more like a gun than what Artemis had in her hands at that very moment.
It was why she was able to shoot the foam arrow she'd pulled from the quiver— after discarding the empty shotgun —at the robot.
The foam hardened instantly, momentarily trapping it. And while perhaps a moment wasn't long, it was what Arley and Superboy needed to get close so that Artemis and Wolf could collect both M'gann and Dubbilex and start to lead them into the depths of the Lights bunker.
"You have sent your allies away Arley Gluck, are you truly that foolish to believe that you can beat me?" The robot asked as it shook off the remains of hardened foam.
"So I guess Vandal never told Morrow?" Arley called out in reply as she set another trick arrows into the crossbow. It was another explosive arrow.
Go wide right when the smokes there, Arley thought to Superboy.
"Told him what?"
"That Lanterns are more brawn than brains!" And then she fired.
Superboy went right and though he did manage to land a blow onto the robot the robot didn't need time to recover, it simply— as the arrows smoke began to clear around it —grabbed Superboy's arm by both the wrist and the meat under the elbow and snapped downwards.
Arley though felt a fraction of the clone pain shoot down her own arm, still screamed; he could hear Dubbilex and M'gann and Artemis' own voices mix with hers in the back of her head.
Superboy let out a strangled cry as the robot then threw him.
Arley fired another foam arrow at the arrow so that the clone could scramble away.
Into the trees! No clue how he sees but if it's any sort of infrared then he'll be fucking blind, Arley thought to Superboy as he, with his arm to his chest, rushed left into the burning brush and she rushed right.
Splitting up wasn't smart when whatever Morrow had built was strong enough to snap a half-Kryptonians bones.
Fight smart not hard and you might get to live another day White Circle.
But the robot wanted her, he had no quarrel with Superboy or the others.
The heat from the flaming trees was enough to immediately start drenching Arleys brow in sweat.
It almost reminded her of the sun and how when she would zoom past the large flaming ball of gas, though protected by her ring, the hair on the back of her neck would feel as if it had been singed while the heat of star pumped life into her because there was no way to be that close to the sun—so close to a star in space when she for so long thought she'd be dead —and not feel energized.
What's the plan? Superboy asked as Arley dove between a pair of flaming trees. Arley could feel Superboy's arm throbbing.
Did Kyle respond? Did you call? Arley asked Artemis. If she closed her eyes she could see the blonde and the others moving slowly through the base, searching for the boys.
No response, no pick up , Artemis replied. M'gann had sent the text Arley had written out with their coordinates and then tried to call Kyle's number only for it to ring and ring and ring until his voicemail had picked up.
M'gann had left one with a heavy pit in her stomach. With every passing moment and with no backup on their way the situation looked bleecker and bleecker.
Arley's eyes fluttered shut as disappointment and frustration rolled through her.
This was like unpodding Superboy all over again. Cut off from the Corps despite what should have been a surefire line through.
Right, okay. Superboy get your arm situated in a sling, I'll keep the tin man occupied after that meet me by the Bioship.
Arley thought of the worst case scenario; of the arrow she had packed away under her seat.
Arley , Superboy thought back quietly, You're joking. Please tell me you're not thinking of using that arrow.
Arley paused her movements through the flames surrounding her, and turned back to see Morrows robot standing atop a flaming bush completely unaffected.
With a hand raised and then a fist clenched the robot opened another magma filled crevice; Arley lunged to the right so as not to fall into the crevice.
The robot would destroy the planet because capturing her was it's directive. The Earth was just collateral damage; all seven-point-however many billion people were just eggs that had to be broken so that Vandal Savage could get to her in this robots eyes.
Arley , Dubbilex called through the link, Don't do anything reckless.
But was it reckless if Arley was thinking it out? Was it carless if she knew the consequences?
Arley wasn't a hero, she wasn't even really a soldier without her ring; she was a warrior with a cause and that cause was to bring down the Light so that no one else would have to suffer like she and M'gann and Superboy all had.
But she couldn't do that— none of them could —if this robot had destroyed the hemisphere and all life on Earth perished.
Arley wasn't sure if Superboy could withstand the heat and fallout of a necklace blow. Superman could, but that didn't mean much when talking about a lab grown half-Kryptonian; but the ones that definitely couldn't— M'gann, Dubbilex and Artemis —were all hidden away in a locked underground bunker made to withstand the weight of the League and Corps.
Just get to the Bioship, Arley thought back before she cupped her hands over her mouth.
Her lungs were starting to burn.
"Hey toaster oven!" Arley called out, "Over here!" She then dropped her hands and grabbed the bow once more. She had a handful of arrows left; none of them especially powerful given her enemy but rather annoying enough that Arley knew Superboy would have the time he needed to bind his arm.
"Arley Gluck, why do you do this when we both know the end result is your capture? Why do you fight the inevitable?" The robot asked.
"Probably cause I've never been one to go down without swinging."
"But why?" The robot sounded confused; Morrows machine could perform complex math in milliseconds and end the world with a flick of the wrist but it couldn't seem to understand why Arley didn't just roll over and die.
"Why don't you walk away?" Arley asked instead, her crossbow aimed and ready to fire. "Why don't you just let me and my people walk out of here?"
"That is not my directive."
"That's why, you're wired to capture me and I'm wired to fight. That's just how we were made," Arley replied.
"I still do not see but it is without consequence," the robot drawled. It went to take a step forward only for Arley to fire her arrow at the robot's left arm socket; the arrow hit the robot and stayed nestled in.
It didn't bounce off; there was a weak spot.
There were multiple.
Arley eyed the glow of the robot's neck; where its head met shoulder.
Maybe she could pop his head off. Maybe she didn't need to think of the smell of her own flesh peeling itself off her bones as she plunged a nuclear arrow against the robot's chest.
Superboy , Arley thought as Morrows creations ripped the arrow out itself, I have an idea.
It was a stupid idea; dangerous and if done wrong would also cost Arley her life.
Is it better than your last one?
In Arleys opinion, of course it was. Because it wasn't an idea that put Superboy at risk.
Anything's better than that one, Dubbilex drew out through the mind-link.
I do not, Arley hissed mentally as she darted left towards where she knew Superboy was, Need your sass right now.
So it's not?
Focus on finding the boys! Arley shot back, And Superboy, get the Bioship into the clearing so that the others have a surefire escape.
And what about you? The clone asked. What are you going to be doing? He sounded worried.
Scared.
If Arley focused she was sure she'd be able to feel the clones heart beating lodged in her throat
I'm going to play some cat and mouse for now . And then she ran through the burning trees and vegetation. The robot was hot on her tail.
…
Lex Luther knew when to jump ship. He wasn't an idiot, with an enemy like Superman and associates like Vandal Savage and Ra's Al Ghul, he couldn't afford to be nor could he afford to be careless.
He had to be calculated. Everything he did had to be measured perfectly least he falter the piranhas he swam with eat him alive.
And maybe when he first heard about the Cadmus Laboratories break out— when the Lantern and genomorph and his clone all escaped —he wasn't worried.
That had been a careless mistake.
Several months ago he had been king of the mountain so to speak but then the three of them hadn't run to the League or Titans for help as so predicted; they just fought.
With nothing they began to tear Lex's mountain down.
So when he got the alert from the Yellowstone laboratory, indocationing something had triggered Red Volcano awake and into defensive mode Luther simply swiped the alert away.
He would not let Vandal Savage's mess fall onto his head, crushing him under the weight of the Lights rubble.
"Mercy," Lex Luther called out. His robot assistant appeared in his office doorway. "Send out an alert to all office workers and tell them to start shifting to remote work, after that start locking down the tower. I don't want even the janitor in by the end of business today. Any other life forms except for myself, I want them taken care of. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Thank you Mercy." And with her gone and Luther alone left in his office, under a large portrait of himself he reached for his phone and found the contact he was looking for almost immediately.
And why wouldn't he, Amanda, after all started with an A .
…
Arley was dizzy. She'd lead the robot back towards the clearing; she could see the lights of the Bioship. In between the trees.
Arley , Artemis sounded through the mind-link as the former Lantern leaned against one of the few trees that wasn't on fire. Artemis sounded tense and sad and Arley's brows laced themselves together as she tried to force the link to show her what the blonde was seeing.
Yeah?
We-uh, we found where the Light was keeping Speedy.
Arley felt joy, unbridled joy, flow through her only for it to stop suddenly because the Roy Harper in the pod before Artemis was young. Far younger than he had been at eighteen.
This, the Roy in the pod, was no older than the Roy she had first met several years ago.
Arley tried to suck in a deep breath of air through her nose only for her knees to shake as she coughed; hacking with every shake of her shoulders.
Her fingers curled around the tree as she forced herself to steady.
What-what about the others? Arley asked weakly.
Roy hadn't been taken saving her.
It was quiet for a moment. Dubbilex was the one to respond; He's the only one here, Arley. There's DNA from League members being kept here as well, but Roy Harper is the only captive.
No one had tried to save her; Arley felt her knuckles hit the rough bark of the tree.
Wally and Dick and Kaldur had all just gone living their lives after all. Arley felt the hope she'd been clinging to for months ripped from her chest.
She knew it, when Roy's clone slipped Arley had known it. And yet it still hurt worse than anything that had been done to her back in the cell.
Replaceable; Sportsmaster had been right. She was nothing to the boys who were everything to her.
Arley pulled the sword she'd stolen from Oliver's hideout, out from its sheath and held the hilt tightly in her hands.
Alright , Arley thought tersely. There were tears in her eyes; the world was hot around her. It was spinning. Her chest hurt.
Arley , someone tried to say only for the former Lantern to speak over them.
Just get him to ship , Arley directed Artemis, Dubbilex and M'gann, I'm taking care of Mr. Roboto-Superboy?
Yeah?
Gonna need some help.
You don't even have to ask.
Alright then, Arley took a shallow breath, Let's bring Roy home.
…
Kyle Rayner was exhausted. For most of his morning Kyle had been fighting Lobo who'd come to earth for a bounty only to then be roped into three back to back fights with the Titans.
As he practically crawled into his room at Titans Tower-Maim, all Kyle wanted was to sleep for the next thousand years.
That was until he was in bed and had grabbed his phone, intending to scroll through Instagram until he passed out mid-post, only to freeze when he clicked open his phone.
One missed call from an unknown number.
Two unopened text messages. On containing numbers— coordinates —and the other containing the singular word:
Help
…
Superboy and Arley were in the clearing, Arley had the sword brandished as Morrows creations landed only several feet away.
"Arley Gluck are you done with this pitiful game of chase?"
"Yes." In so many more ways than just this one. She was done chasing after people who didn't care about her.
Dick had walked out of the hall and created a team that fit his needs; Arley doubted they ever had to beg him to stay.
Wally had replaced her. Jinx. Pink hair, pink eyes; Arley could remeber how their hands were intertwined in that news article.
Kaldur had hung up his metaphorical cape; Arley doubted he even chased down a single lead concerning her after he'd done that. He probably just buried her in the back of his mind and said goodbye, and Roy, he'd never gone against his Light programming.
That wasn't his fault but still.
She was done running towards and away. She was done.
She was tired.
The robot's arms fell from across its metal chest and Arley felt Superboy grab the back of her shirt and pants before he spun— the world spun —and threw her at the robot.
It was over quickly; Arley could hear several different voices screaming as the robot's arm ripped through her torso.
Maybe no one screamed; maybe what Arley heard was just through the mind-link.
Maybe she had been the one to scream. Because it hurt.
It hurt to breathe.
"You could have come alive," the robot said. He almost sounded sorry.
"You were never walking away from this," Arley struggled to speak. She could taste copper— blood —filling her mouth as she raised her arm and struck downwards with all the strength in her being.
Blood leaked out from behind her lips as black dotted her vision.
She wasn't sorry. Not like Morrow's creation; she knew this was the way she meant to go out. Even before the ring Arley had always known she was destined to die bloody and gasping for air.
She was done. In more ways then one.
The sword, the same way a knife would cut through warm butter, sliced downwards, into the robot with no struggle.
Arley screamed in pain— it hurt to breathe, it hurt to focus; it hurt to be alive —as she dragged the knife around the front of the robot's head, around where its collar was.
The robot head fell backwards and Arley dropped, the metal arm that had been in her gut was ripped out of her abdomen as she hit not the ground but a pair of arms.
Arley, who's eyes had closed instinctively as she'd begun to drop, opened them expecting to see dark hair and blue eyes.
She opened them thinking she was going to see Superboy.
She never expected Wally.
"Oh God," he was crying. Sobbing really. "Please, you can't do this, not now!"
There was green in the night sky. Like falling stars, green tore across the sky.
Wally's eyes were green.
Arley's eyes flickered to her right. Superboy had slid across the dirt and saddled up to her side, his hand had enveloped hers.
Everything hurt. The air was warm but Arley herself was cold; blood loss— especially rapid and sudden —did that to you.
"Arley!"
It hurt to smile.
But Arley did. With bloody teeth Arley looked up at the sky and smiled as the world around her faded black.
The last thought Arley could hear herself think was her observation; her ring felt warm against her skin.
Notes:HOW DO YOU WE LIKE THIS? HOW DO WE FEEL, OUR GIRLS ALMOST HOME! (We have two, maybe three, more chapters and then we're done!). But before I go I do have a couple of questions: Do we all still want a Justice League Animated Series AU? What about a CW Flash / Legends of Tomorrow AU?
And if I didn't do either of those but instead a Harry Potter Remus Lupin story instead with a whole (sorta) new oc, would anyone read that?
Feel free to drop a comment cause I love hearing what you guys have to say! Ask me questions on Arley, I love answering them! So until next time, peace out.