Original (Roy Harper x OC)

Chapter Seven - Back on Earth

"I'm finally back!" I exclaimed happily, looking around the mansion I appeared in. "David! Where-"

I stopped talking as I went down the stairs, stopping in the middle. Down in the porch was Wally, Green Arrow, Black Canary, another guy that looked like an older version of Roy, and a new masked hero with a blue symbol on his chest.

"Rou?" Green Arrow asked.

"What's going on? Who are they?"

"Jim Harper," the clone tells me.

"I'm Nightwing," the masked guy says. "But I used to be Robin"

My eyes widened and I slid down the railing, jumping at the end to land directly in front of him. I had to look up to look at his mask.

"Oh my god, you're so tall! How long have I been gone?"

"A while," Green Arrow tells me. "Almost four years"

I glanced over at him. "Really? It's barely been a year for me. I'm still only 16. How old are you?" I ask, looking back at Robin. Before I left we had been the same age.

"19," he tells me.

"Huh. Um, why are you all here?"

"We came to find you. We heard from David you were on your way back today. There's something wrong with Roy," Green Arrow says.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll have to see for yourself"

I followed them to a rooftop, all of us hidden in the shadows while we waited for Roy to appear. He slid down a rope, stumbling when he landed in the roof. Green Arrow went over to him.

"Hey, Roy, need a hand?"

"No," Red Arrow said, slapping his hand away and standing up himself.

"We think you do," Nightwing said, all of them stepping out of the shadows.

"I have nothing to say to any of you. Nothing to explain, nothing to justify"

Green Arrow pulled out the was of cash Red Arrow had tucked in his belt as he tried to walk away. "Nothing?"

"It's not what it looks like," he said a bit hesitantly. "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"

"Dude, are you even listening to yourself?" Wally asks.

"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"

"Roy, I know you feel lost, but that doesn't mean you're alone," Black Canary told him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not the one that's lost," Red Arrow said.

"When was the last time you trained? The last time you slept?"

"Don't even start. I'm in the best shape of my life"

"Oh, really?"

Black Canary started attacking him, almost making him fall over the ledge, but she grabbed him and pulled him back into his feet.

"Best shape of your life. That was me holding back. Way back. Roy, you used to treat your body as a temple. But now..."

Roy fell to his hands and knees when Black Canary let go of him. "My body's no temple. It's a cheap knock off. A clone"

Green Arrow then approached him. "Roy, come back to Star City. It'll be like old times, you and me training, fighting crime, just hanging out, shooting the-"

Red Arrow stood up. "You're confused. Probably thinking of the other guy, the original, the one you stopped looking for. Me, I'm just-"

"We get it, you're a clone," Jim says, stepping forward. "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, 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 the Cadmus policy to delete the source material. He's dead, brother. Which is all the more reason you have to live, to honour the Roy that was"

My eyes widened at his words and my chest tightened. I couldn't believe it. All that fighting with Roy while searching, all for nothing. He was never alive in the first place. He was already gone.

Red Arrow sat down on a vent. "I'm whelmed by all this attention. What are you even doing here, West? I thought you ditched the hero game"

"Ditching the game doesn't mean ditching my friends, and before you round back to the original Roy again, let's face the facts. He was never our friend"

"We've all done the math," Nightwing adds. "Speedy was abducted before any of us met"

"You're the guy we trained beside, fought beside. You're the only you we know"

"You're our friend. Just cause you're a clone with anger management issues doesn't change that"

"Seriously," Wally smiles. "Have you met Superboy?"

"All done?" Red Arrow asks. "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. Write me off. Or don't. Either way, blow"

He was about to jump off the roof, vanish once again for I got to speak with him, but Green Arrow called out to him.

"What about Rou?"

He froze, staring down at the city streets. "She's gone"

"Not anymore"

His head snapped up. "Stop lying"

I walked out with my hood over my head, my hands tucked in my pockets. He quickly pulled out an arrow and shot it at me, but instead of hitting me, the arrow went straight trough me and landed in the roof, a net coming from the arrow.

"Roy..." I removed my hood and his eyes widened.

"R-Rou? Why do you look so... so young"

"I was taken back to my home planet, where time moves a lot slower than here. But you, you look dead tired"

He scoffs. "Goodbye, Rou"

It was quiet as he jumped off the roof. I turned around, my head low, but Nightwing stepped over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"There's an empty spot on the team waiting just for you, if you wanted to take it"

I looked up at him with a small smile. "I think... I think I'll take you up on that"