"See who?" Dick asked, dark eyes following my gaze but apparently not seeing what I was.

Roman's smile widened, his fingers tapping against the wall behind him as I continued to glare. He somehow looked different and the same as the last time I'd seen him. There will still dark circles beneath his eyes, but they were lighter, and his skin seemed to glow with health. He was leaning against the wall but I couldn't tell if it was for comfort or support. He didn't look to be on death's door as much as I was hoping he would after all these months.

Then again, he could be manipulating what I was seeing again.

"Madalyn," Dick prompted, his hand coming up to circle around my wrist. From the corner of my eye I could still see him trying to figure out what was going on, his head moving back and forth as he looked between me and the elevator hall.

"What's going on?" I heard Jason ask, followed by footsteps. I turned to see both he and Conner approaching curiously, Jason's shoulder's already tensed liked he was ready to fight.

"Go on, Emmy," Roman said teasingly. "Tell them you're seeing things."

My jaw tightened, teeth grinding together. He made it sound like I was crazy, and if we didn't know what he was capable of I'm sure everyone else would've thought the same. But even with that knowledge, I couldn't help but wonder if they would.

Dick's grip on my wrist tightened and I turned to meet his eyes. "Roman."

"Shit, where?" Jason asked, looking around us as if waiting for my brother to appear.

My own gaze moved back to Roman where he leaned against the wall, laughing. "By the elevator," I answered.

Everyone looked, but still no one but me saw him, his growing laughter pissing me off more. He was lucky he wasn't really here or I would've impaled him on a tree I'd grown just for the occasion.

"I don't see anyone," Conner commented, his own eyes narrowed. The look of concentration on his face told me he was trying to use x-ray vision, but without Roman physically here it wasn't going to do anything.

"He's projecting," Dick said flatly. He still hadn't let go of my wrist, as if he were scared that if he did, Roman would take me away.

All I could imagine in response to him was a nod.

"Well, aren't they a smart bunch," Roman said condescendingly, straightening from where he stood on the wall. His laughter died out but everything about his posture screamed that he was pleased with himself. What I wouldn't give to melt his face away with my pheromones. "We need to have a little chat, sis. You have something that belongs to me."

"Something or someone?" I challenged, words met with the slightest tick of his jaw.

"Both."

"What's he saying?" Gar asked from across from me. I ignored him, trying to focus on Roman.

If he wanted to play one of his sick mind games, then fine, I'd play along. With his temper, it would only take me a few well pushed nerves to get him to give away something he didn't mean to. Unfortunate for him, but very helpful for us. Probably reading the thought from my mind, his expression turned into a sneer.

"You know what?" he said calmly, shooting dirty looks to the others around us. "Why don't we go somewhere with less distractions?" Before I could say anything, the kitchen and the rest of the tower around me blurred away, morphing into the street alley from last night. It was just the two of us and yet I could still distinctly feel the pressure of Dick's finger's around my wrist. "That's better."

"Stalk me much?" I said bitterly with a roll of my eyes. He obviously knew where I was last night which meant he knew Aiden was at the tower with us. The fact he hadn't shown up in person told me a lot more about his current state of health than the image he was presenting to me.

He smirked at the words, shrugging and unbothered. "What can I say, I miss my big sister."

"Fuck off."

"That hurts," he said sarcastically, placing a hand over his heart as if I'd shot him.

I felt my nose flare as I fought to keep from rolling my eyes again. I didn't want him to know how much he annoyed me, but his presence made that hard to do. It was hard to believe I ever felt happy about discovering my twin. "What do you want, Roman?"

"I already told you. You have something that belongs to me."

"No matter how much you've deluded yourself, my life and my powers do not belong to you."

"If you're willing to sacrifice someone else than, sure, maybe you're right."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Even as I said the words, I knew exactly who he was talking about. I just didn't understand why.

"Don't play dumb, Emmy. You know exactly what that means," he answered, shaking his head at me like he was disappointed. He turned his head down to look over his dark clothes, brushing at them as if cleaning off lint as he went on. "Give me Aiden, and you just might survive all of this. That's what you want, right? To live a long, happy life with your Robin."

A chill ran up my spine at his words. "What does Aiden have to do with that?"

"I know you know what mom and dad did to him. How they used him in their experiments, kept him locked up and unconscious as some kind of DNA harvest." He paused, but I didn't say anything to him about it. He was in my head, of course he knew what I'd learned. "Now, here's something you don't know: one of their experiments was testing how they could use his ability to tamper with others' DNA on a molecular level. They didn't want to just mix it with others, they wanted to see if they could use it to entirely separate the DNA from its host."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Roman rolled his eyes, making me want to punch him right in the face. I couldn't feel Dick's hand on me anymore but any time I tried to move my arm even an inch, it felt like it was being pinned down.

"They wanted to use his teleportation to remove the DNA strands that result in metahuman abilities," he sighed in annoyance. "They'd tried other ways but the host usually died. Then one day it occurred to them that maybe the only way to succeed in ridding someone of the meta DNA was to use a meta to separate them. Whatever tests they did to him when they first got him, they must've found something that made them think it was possible."

"I'm still not seeing what that has to do with either of us," I said slowly, trying to wrap my head around the information. A large part of my mind was telling me he was lying, same way he had been since he came back into my life. It was too convenient that he was suddenly sharing this information rather than having mentioned it before admitting he was trying to kill me so he could live. He'd been too hell bent on that outcome, positive the only way he could live was if I died.

So why would everything suddenly change?

"Don't you get it, Emmy?" he laughed, sounding a little crazed. "I have their notes and my scientists think they can figure it out. They can use his DNA to target whatever that alien DNA was that mom and dad injected me with. It doesn't have to be your life for mine anymore."

I stared at him in silence, watching him carefully compose his expression into one of hope. Whatever he thought he was accomplishing with his declaration, he was banking on me giving in. He wanted me to give in to the desire to live, the desire to continue being with Dick for the rest of our lives. And fuck, was it hard not to.

I couldn't help the pinch of hope it sprouted in my chest, like roots reaching for something to hold on to as it grew. If I gave him Aiden, let his scientists do whatever they needed to to save him, then I didn't have to die. I didn't have to worry about breaking Dick's heart when he lost me forever because it wouldn't happen.

And even more, I didn't have to worry about Dick sacrificing himself in order to save me.

All I had to do was turn Aiden over.

"I know I fucked up before, Em," he went on softly. "I shouldn't have jumped to the most extreme solution and tried to kill you and I'm sorry. But we could never seem to pin him down long enough to grab him. I hate to say it, but Aiden is fucking resourceful when it comes to getting away. I was desperate and then Daniel said you were alive and I thought maybe it was a sign or something. I never want to kill you, I'm just afraid to die."

The fear was plain in his voice as he said the words, and if nothing else I knew that much was true. No one wanted to die and everyone feared it in one way or another. But that just made me think of Aiden and how he'd been running for his own life too.

"Aiden isn't the only teleporter in the world," I said, voice hard. "Why not just get another one to use?"

Again, I saw Roman's jaw tick angrily before he forced it to relax and he spoke. "He's not just any teleporter, he's a CADMUS experiment. They had to make enhancements on his ability to make it work. Enhancements that no other teleporter is going to have."

"And how do you know that? Where are you getting all of this information from?"

This time Roman scoffed, tilting his head at me like I was a fool. "You think you're the only one with sources?"

"My sources didn't find this supposed miracle information."

"Well then, maybe you're working with the wrong people."

The alley around us started shimmering and blurring, a sign that his surprise drop in was coming to an end. I was beginning to see the tower kitchen cutting into my vision in pieces, but the angle was different than before. A shadowed figure weaved in and out of sight beside me, a large, sharp angled shape hovering above.

"Do the smart thing, Emmy. Give up Aiden." Roman stepped backwards as he spoke the words, our meeting come to an end as far as he was concerned.

With my mind whirring with all this new information, it was far from over for me. That dark part of me was whispering seductively to give in and agree, sacrificing Aiden to protect me and Dick.

The good part that Dick was so certain existed was barely holding on.

"My name isn't Emmy," I replied to him weakly, his laughter echoing around me as the alley faded more visibly.

Suddenly I felt rough palms on my face, details of the kitchen coming more sharply into focus. I registered that I was on the floor for some reason, the angled shape I noticed earlier being the edge of the counter I'd been leaning on before. Green hair peaked over the counter before Gar's face came entirely into view, Jason and Conner suddenly appearing behind him. All three stared at me with varying degrees of concern and relief that made me shift uncomfortably.

Beside me, Dick's face came into focus, his eyes flooding with relief as I met them. I moved slowly to sit up and he helped me, angling my body enough that he was still keeping me in his grasp.

"Jesus, Madds, you scared the hell out of me," he breathed, pulling me tight against him and dropping a kiss on the top of my head. Instinctively, I melted into him, my hand curling around one of his wrists as he slid his hand down to cup the side of my neck. If I didn't know any better, I would think he was slyly trying to check for my pulse. "What did he do to you?"

"I don't-- nothing," I answered with a shrug, everything still feeling a bit foggy. It was almost like I was waking up from a fever dream, my mind trying to decide which was real; my conversation with Roman or Dick staring at me intensely. "I don't think so, anyway. He just talked. How did I get on the floor?"

"You passed out," Jason offered, drawing my gaze.

"Your heart rate fell too," Conner added, catching me off guard. "It was just under 40 beats per minute."

Dick's fingers twitched against my neck and I squeezed his wrist in return. So he was checking my pulse.

"Are you okay?" Gar asked and I nodded almost robotically.

Truthfully, I felt completely fine, just a little disoriented. But my problem at the moment wasn't how I was feeling, rather what I was thinking. And that was something I couldn't share. Not if I didn't want them to look at me differently.

Dick's hands slid back to my face, making me look up at him as his eyes searched mine. "Are you okay?" he repeated, swallowing hard like he was afraid of my answer.

I brought my hands up, latching on both of his and holding them against my skin, acting as an anchor to ground my wandering mind. My thumb ran along his for a few seconds before he trapped it between his and my cheek, breaking my minor distraction. "I'm fine Grayson. I promise."

He stared at me in silence for a moment before nodding, his shoulders only relaxing slightly.

"So what the hell happened?" Jason asked. "One minute you were telling us Roman was here and the next your head was barely missing the counter edge as you passed out. Quick reflexes, by the way," I turned in time to see him elbow Conner as he complimented him.

Conner smiled only briefly, his baby blue eyes darting between me and Dick. "Dick probably could've caught you too, but I didn't want to risk it."

"Thank you," Dick and I said in unison before he added, "Seriously Conner, I owe you one."

"No worries," he shrugged. "We're family and that's what you do for family, right?" He smiled again, this time the bright, uninhibited one I always associated with him.

"Right," I smiled softly back. Internally, I couldn't help but laugh at the statement thinking of my selfish twin. I sighed, looking down at myself on the floor, debating if I wanted to get up yet or stay a little longer. The way Dick was shifting around me, it was clear he was ready to carry me if I needed it. "I honestly don't know why I passed out. I mean, it must've been Roman, but I don't know how or why. As far as I knew, I was still standing far away from him, though it was by the bowling alley and not here."

"Why the bowling alley?" Gar said curiously, his brows furrowed.

"He took me back to the alley," I answered, looking back at Dick as he watched me carefully. "He wanted me to know that he knew we had been there." Dick's jaw ticked as he clenched his teeth and the overwhelming urge to massage his jaw until it relaxed came over me. Instead, I lightly scraped my nails across his skin, giving him something else to focus on as I continued. "All he did was talk though. He didn't even try to hurt me, though I'm not entirely sure that was a choice as much as it was an unfortunate necessity for him. He wanted me to see him as stronger than he was."

"What did Roman talk about?" Dick pulled his hands from my face, but before I could protest or question him, he twisted mine so that they were interlocked in my lap. For the first time since I came to, I realized he was actually kneeling next to me and wondered how his knees hadn't succumb to any sort of pain.

"I'm not sure how much of it is true, if any," I said carefully. "But he told me why he wants Aiden."

"Great, then maybe you can tell me. Because I've been wondering that for years."

My head snapped up so fast, I heard the bones crack with the motion, my eyes moving past the trio of teens to where Hank and Aiden stood behind them. Hank looked at me with one brow raised, undoubtedly curious about what he'd missed.

Aiden, on the other hand, looked somewhere between terrified and pissed, his arms crossing over his chest as his green eyes bore into mine. I straightened slightly, not knowing how to answer without telling everyone a lie. I was still trying to wrap my head around everything myself, fighting off the urge to grab and deliver him to Roman before I could think better of it. Dick's hands in mine were the only thing reminding me that I didn't have to be that person.

"You never knew why he was coming after you?" Dick replied suspiciously. I glanced at him to see he was looking Aiden over as if something telling would jump out at him.

"No," Aiden answered, annoyed. "Some British guy just showed up one day talking about someone named Havoc needing my help with something important. But given how I'd spent the last few years of my life and, and the fact that Havoc doesn't exactly induce good vibes, I knew it couldn't be for anything good. I've been running ever since."

"Wait, so you've never met Roman?" Jason asked, eyeing him just as suspiciously as Dick. If the situation were different, I would've laughed at how much like brothers they looked.

"I wouldn't say I met him as much as saw him. I ran into a crowd at a parade to get away from the other guy when I saw someone with dark hair join him and start yelling at him. He was so pissed, I figured he had to be the one that was after me. Then while he was yelling, the British guy suddenly grabbed his head and started screaming like he was in pain while the other one just stared at him the whole time until it stopped. Didn't really seem like someone I wanted to meet first hand, you know?" Aiden ran his hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face as he refocused on me, eyes bright. "I've been running, but never knew why. If you want me to trust you and believe you're trying to help me the way you said, tell me what he told you. What does he want with me?"

I could feel all eyes as they turned on me, a blazing heat against the cold of my skin brought on by my guilt. Aiden deserved to know why Roman was after him, there was no denying that. But how could I explain it all without tipping anyone off that I wasn't entirely against Roman's proposition?