M O U N T  J U S T I C E
December 31, 03:00 EST

Because she was homeschooled, and aside from Roy, Dick, Wally, and Kaldur, Reese had never really had the chance to have a group of friends she was able to hang out with on a regular basis.

And because all of her friends were boys until the Team was formed, the thirteen-year-old archer had also never experienced a "sleepover" before.

Until now, that is.

Last night, after the Team had returned from Santa Prisca more or less victorious, M'gann had suggested the idea, and Zatanna, Raquel, and Wally were quick to agree with her. Artemis, Kaldur, and Dick had been a bit dubious, but they both eventually agreed that it was a good way to celebrate their win.

Both surprisingly and no, Reese and Conner were the only ones on the Team who didn't really know what a sleepover was.

Reese wasn't impressed.

Sure, it was nice to spend time with the girls apart from the boys, but again, since Reese hadn't ever had any girl friends before the Fourth of July, she wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to do.

As of right now, the brunette was exhausted, both mentally and physically from both the events of the day before and from the sleepover itself, and was currently dozing inside M'gann's bedroom in Mount Justice where she, the Martian, Zatanna, Raquel, and Artemis were all gathered, as the other four babbled on to each other about one thing or another.

Suddenly, Reese felt someone jab her in the ribs, and purely on reflex, the brunette swung out with one hand, barely missing punching Artemis across the face, and instead, her fist hit one of M'gann's pillows, leaving an indent in the fabric that disappeared a moment later.

"Geez," Artemis breathed out once Reese's eyes had opened fully and the blonde archer's heart rate had gone back down to normal after the brunette's hand had almost taken her eye out. "Sorry. Remind me to never wake you up,"

Reese didn't say anything in response, just stared at the older girl for a few moments, before leaning her head back against the side of M'gann's bed from where she was sitting on the floor and closing her eyes, only to open them again a moment later when M'gann spoke up, eyes both wide and sympathetic.

"You can go to sleep, Reese, if you want," the Martian whispered, and the brunette turned her head to where M'gann was laying on her bed, "We can be quieter,"

Despite the nice sentiment, Reese doubted that highly.

Instead, the brunette stood up and grabbed the dark gray fleece blanket she had brought from home a couple of months ago when they had all moved some of their own possessions into the cave, and walked towards the door.

"It's okay," Reese said quietly, wrapping the blanket around herself like a hooded cape as M'gann's door slide open, letting light from the hallway spill into the dim bedroom. "I'll just sleep in my room. It's soundproofed anyway,"

Though talking with the other girls had been fun until she'd fallen asleep, Reese figured her social interaction quota was filled for the day and turned down the corridor to head to her own bedroom in Mount Justice, fully intending to get a solid five hours of sleep.

Instead, just as the thirteen-year-old rounded a corner, she ran--almost literally--into Superboy, who seemed to be walking away from wherever the boys had made their base of operations for the night and towards his own room, which was across the hall from M'gann's and in the opposite direction as Reese's.

"Sorry," the genomorph said quickly after he and Reese had almost rammed into each other. "Wally talks too much. I'm tired. Going to bed,"

Reese blinked at him, still not entirely awake herself, before processing what Conner had said and giving a small nod.

" 'Night," she said, and Conner sent her a smile before passing by her towards his room. 

Because of his and Reese's abilities--super-hearing and the like--Conner's room had been sound-proofed by Batman as well, allowing the two to be able to get a good night's sleep without hearing every little noise that the cave made throughout the night.

Reese continued on her way, able to hear Wally's voice coming from the common room long before she reached it. Even without super-hearing, she was sure she would've been able to hear his voice from M'gann's room.

Deciding at the last second to forgo going to bed in her own room and deciding instead to join her oldest friends, Reese turned another corner and was able to see Wally's back from where the sixteen-year-old was standing in the open doorway to the common room.

"And then--" the speedster was saying as Reese walked up behind him. "I told Captain Cold..." Wally trailed off as Dick noticed Reese lurking behind Wally, blanket around her head like a cape, and the Boy Wonder sent his girlfriend a small wave. Wally, on the other hand, sounded confused when he spoke again. "Who are you waving at?" the speedster asked, before turning around and seeing Reese there, silent as a church mouse.

Obviously, he hadn't heard her walk up behind him if Wally's reaction was any indication. 

The speedster shrieked when he saw Reese, very loudly and not at all sounding like a sixteen-year-old boy before he tripped over his own two feet and sprawled on his back on the floor of the common room, wheezing.

"Did I scare you?" Reese asked rhetorically once her ears had stopped ringing, feeling a laugh bubbling up as Dick burst out into his own laughter from where he was sitting on the couch, as Wally blew out a breath.

"No," he burst out as he jumped to his feet, and Reese grinned. "You just...surprised me,"

"Liar," she said simply, before flopping onto the couch beside Dick and curling up into a ball.

As Wally spluttered behind her, Reese realized, glaringly, that when she had come into the common room, Dick hadn't been wearing his sunglasses, even though he had when the rest of the Team had decided to have the sleepovers in the first place.

Dick had also talked to his girlfriend on the Bioship ride home, in whispers, of course, about how Kaldur had somehow figured out that he and Reese were dating, and that Robin was, in fact, Dick Grayson.

But, somehow, Reese wasn't surprised. Aqualad was smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for, and frankly, the brunette was impressed that the Atlantean had figured it out all on his own.

She also assumed that Dick had taken his sunglasses off as soon as Conner had left the common room, considering the genomorph hadn't looked as if he had just figured out who the Boy Wonder was when previously, Robin had guarded his secret identity about as close as he guarded his heart.

"Any particular reason you're in here, pretty bird?" Dick asked as Wally sat down in a chair, but from where she was laying, her head against Dick's leg, Reese just shrugged.

"I almost punched Artemis in the face,"

Had her eyes been open, Reese would've seen the way all three boys' eyes widened to the point where they were almost full circles, and Wally's face paled.

"And why did you do that, Reese?" Kaldur asked slowly, the trio realizing that already, the youngest of them was again half-asleep, looking remarkably like she was a fuzzy gray burrito with the way her blanket was wrapped around her. "I thought you and Artemis...resolved your argument?"

"Artie woke me up," the brunette began simply, eyes still closed and burrowing deeper in the couch, and Dick, as she tried to get comfortable. "So I swung, and her face was in the way. I'm going to sleep now. Good night,"

For a while, after Reese's rather abrupt end to her explanation about why exactly she had almost socked Artemis in the eye, the common room was silent, with the three other original proteges processing what Silverbird had said, before finally, Wally spoke up again.

"Has she ever done that to you?" the redhead asked, glancing towards the Boy Wonder, but Dick just threw his feet up onto the coffee table, looking utterly at ease with the whole situation.

"Of course not," he answered simply, but alas, Wally West was not convinced, and so he leaned forward in the armchair he was sitting in and braced both of his arms against his knees.

"Oh yeah?" the speedster asked, grinning, as Kaldur gave a small sigh from where he was sitting across the room. "Prove it,"

Dick just gave a grin of his own and quirked an eyebrow at Wally as he held up his index finger and lightly poked Reese in the shoulder.

Nothing happened.

Well, nothing happened for thirty seconds until--still fast asleep as judging from the way Dick heard his girlfriend breathing and the expression on her face (she never was able to replicate that expression while awake)--Reese picked up a nearby throw pillow and tossed it across the room, hitting Wally dead in the face.

The sixteen-year-old tumbled off of the chair he was sitting in and landed on the floor with a 'thud', his head popping up a moment later to glare at Dick, to which the Boy Wonder just shrugged, blue eyes glimmering with laughter.

"I told you," the young detective said simply. "She never does it to me,"

➳➳➳

The next morning, or rather,  about four hours later, Reese woke up in the common room feeling very refreshed, considering she had gotten less than five hours of sleep. 

She and Dick had fallen asleep against each other...again, with Dick somehow managing to unroll Reese from her blanket cocoon enough so they were both covered by the fleece without waking the brunette up, though considering that Reese had once slept through an earthquake that had hit Star City when she was eleven, that wasn't saying much.

Kaldur had passed out where he had been sitting on the loveseat kitty corner to the couch, while Wally had ended up on the floor. How that had happened, Reese wasn't entirely sure.

The brunette, either way, was the first of the four to wake up, and for a couple of minutes, she debated just going back to sleep (Dick was very comfy), but the sound of footsteps from outside the common room dashed that thought pretty quickly.

And, considering all the members of the Team who knew Robin's secret identity were currently in the room, that meant someone who didn't know was about to walk in, which could potentially cause a huge problem.

As the footsteps came closer, Reese recognized the vibrations reverberating through the stone floor of the cave as Artemis, which didn't make things any better, considering, despite what Kaldur had said last night, the atmosphere between the two archers was still more than a little bit tense whenever Reese's romantic relationship was brought into the conversation.

Flicking her eyes around, Reese quickly spied her boyfriend's sunglasses from where he had placed them on the coffee table the night before and snatched them up to jab them onto the Boy Wonder's nose just as Artemis rounded the corner into the common room, startling Dick awake as Reese practically launched herself off of the couch and across the room in the span of about two seconds.

"Good morning to you too," Artemis muttered, giving Reese a bemused look as the thirteen-year-old suddenly popped up in front of her. 

Artemis honestly looked like the stereotypical teenager in the morning. Or at least, the kind Reese had always read about in books or seen in TV shows, messy hair and all.

Still looking half-asleep, Artemis blundered over to the fridge, where she took out a carton of orange juice and went to pour a glass, only to pause as only a couple of drops fell out of the carton.

Abruptly realizing that she wasn't about to get her juice that morning, and knowing very well who the culprit likely was, Artemis slammed the empty orange juice carton onto the counter as Zira clambered up next to her, sitting on the granite countertop and waiting for her own breakfast that morning.

The baby gorilla might've been less than six months old, but she had impeccable manners. When she got what she wanted at a reasonable pace, of course. She was also notoriously impatient.

Wally, who had by now awoken himself, was midway through a yawn when Artemis stalked over to him and grabbed him by the collar of the hoodie that the speedster was wearing, yanking him up and causing the sixteen-year-old to give a squawk of indignation as he swallowed his yawn back down.

Once Reese was sure that Wally wasn't about to get murdered, at least...not literally, she rounded the corner of the kitchen island and opened the fridge door herself, taking out the bowl of baby gorilla food (read: softened fruit) that, despite how exhausted she was, Reese had had the coherency to make the night before prior to the "sleepover".

"If you drink the rest of the orange juice..." Artemis was saying, her hands still clamped around the front of Wally's sweatshirt, as Reese set Zira's bowl down in front of her, Dick coming to stand in the kitchen beside her, tossing the empty orange juice carton into the recycling bin as they both turned to watch Artemis and Wally. "You throw out the empty carton. Understand?"

Wally quickly nodded his head, his upper torso in the air being held by Artemis's grip on his sweatshirt as his legs, for some reason, were draped over the edge of the armchair.

Abruptly, Artemis let the redhead go, and Wally fell to the floor, laying halfway off the chair for a moment as Artemis walked back into the kitchen and opened the fridge again, opting to instead grab the jug of milk, which was, fortunately, for Wally's sake anyway, over halfway full.

"How'd Wally end up on the floor?" Reese whispered to Dick as her boyfriend kept one eye on Zira as she munched on her breakfast, the other on Reese as the brunette grabbed the box of toaster waffles out of the freezer and popped a couple into the toaster.

"You don't remember?" Dick asked as Reese stretched, trying to reach up onto a cupboard shelf to grab the unopened bottle of chocolate syrup for her to pour over her waffles, since Wally had, again, drained the previous bottle.

"No," Reese answered simply, giving Dick an odd look as she started to try and climb up onto the kitchen counter to grab the chocolate syrup. "Should I?"

Dick didn't answer and instead pulled his girlfriend back before she was able to climb fully onto the counter, grabbing onto an unpeeled orange that was in the fruit bowl beside the microwave and hefting it in one hand.

"You threw a pillow at his face," Dick explained simply, ignoring the indignant look Reese sent him when he pulled her off the counter, and instead sent his girlfriend a smug grin. "And, because I don't want you to fall and break your shoulder, and because neither of us is tall enough to reach the shelf that your oh-so-important chocolate syrup is on, watch this,"

Reese crossed her arms and stared at him as Dick tossed the orange between his hands, but regardless, the Boy Wonder could see his girlfriend was interested, as she always was, so gently, Dick pulled Reese back so she was standing next to him before he drew his arm back and chucked the orange at the cupboard, the sphere-shaped fruit hitting the bottom of the bottle of chocolate syrup and making it fall straight into Dick's free hand, moments before Robin caught the orange in his other hand.

"Show-off," Reese muttered under her breath as Dick held the syrup out towards her, but the Boy Wonder just grinned again.

"You love it," he shot back, before placing the syrup into Reese's hand. "Your chocolate, dear pretty bird,"

Reese took the syrup from Dick with a roll of her eyes, but Robin could see that his girlfriend wasn't really annoyed (he could always tell, and she hardly ever was annoyed with him). Also, he could see her smiling.

Just then, the toaster waffles popped up, and Wally, hearing a noise that signified food, sped into the kitchen and was about to snatch up Reese's waffles, but before he could, the brunette swung her arm out, catching the speedster right in the solar plexus, throwing Wally backward and onto the floor, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath.

"You already drank all the juice," Reese told the out-of-breath redhead as she drizzled more than enough chocolate syrup onto her waffles, adding a few whole raspberries on top for good measure, before topping the entire confection with whipped cream and a glass of chocolate milk on the side. "These are my waffles,"

Holding her head high, Reese walked over to the barstools that sat on the other side of the counter and began to eat her waffles, one dark eye trained on Wally, as Dick began to peel the orange he had used to knock the syrup off of the shelf in the first place.

As long as he had known her, Dick had always noticed that Reese was more than a little protective over her stuff, food or otherwise. He had a feeling it was a side effect of the year she had spent on the streets between when her biological family had died and when he and Roy had found her, or it could've just been the fact that, with everyone but him, Reese was a terrible sharer.

Regardless, and because his girlfriend got cranky when she didn't get her usual dose of sugar, Dick opted to just eat his orange, pouring a bowl of cereal as he went before he sat down beside Reese, sliding a small bowl of sliced mango over to her to go along with the toaster waffles and chocolate.

Knowing now that there was no way he was going to get any of Reese's breakfast mound of sweetness without losing a finger or two, Wally skirted the brunette warily, grabbing a banana instead from the counter and peeling it before stuffing half of the thing into his mouth.

"We have to meet with Batman and Red Tornado this morning too," Dick piped up after a couple of minutes, in which Artemis had opted to make oatmeal, Kaldur had woken up, Wally had moved on to a stack of buttered toast with bacon, and the rest of the Team had filtered into the common room.

As the Boy Wonder spoke, Reese whipped her head around, mouth full of chocolate rasberry-covered toaster waffle, with a spot of whipped cream on her nose. Dick was able to read the confusion in her eyes, but he found it difficult not to laugh while whipped cream was on his girlfriend's nose, so he quickly let his vision split, allowing Reese to see where whipped cream from his point of view and allow her to wipe it off.

As she did so, and once his eyesight had gone back to normal, Dick answered his girlfriend's unanswered question as the others, most of them by now eating breakfasts of their own, sent him looks of varying confusion as well, with Reese vigorously rubbing at her nose to try and get the whipped cream off.

"Batman called last night and said he wanted a new debrief on what happened on Santa Prisca," subconsciously, Dick found himself glancing over at Reese, and though the Boy Wonder was no telepath, he knew both of them were thinking about what had happened the day before with Blockbuster.

About how Silverbird had almost killed Mark Desmond for what he had done to her parents and sister, and how Robin had almost let her.

The others, it seemed, didn't notice the sudden tension, because Wally sent Dick a confused look again as he swiped a lone raspberry off of Reese's now-abandoned plate, while the brunette did nothing to stop him, her appetite now nonexistent.

"I thought we already debriefed him," KF began, before standing up straight and puffing out his chest. "You know...when he berated us for breaking into the League's system and then said we did a good job?"

But, Dick just shrugged. "That's just what he said,"

And it was. Actually, though the conversation had been very brief, Dick had noticed that it had been a bit odd, even by Batman's standards.

Several minutes passed as everyone continued to eat their breakfasts, and mere moments after they had all finished eating, Reese's head perked up and she twisted around on the stool.

"They're here," she said simply.

Considering they were all still in their pajamas, except for Conner, who never seemed to change clothes, that meant the Team still had to get dressed, and it was a good ten minutes before they all congregated back in the corridor that led to the main room of the cave that was near the Zeta tubes.

At this point, Silverbird had started getting jittery. Not because of danger or anything, but because she didn't know what this was about. Robin hadn't seemed worried, but that did little to quench Reese's own anxiety.

Not to mention the other elephant in the room, which was made apparent when Aqualad spoke up as they were all walking through the hallway, Silverbird lingering beside Robin and twisting her fingers together.

"We have reason to feel proud of yesterday's victories," the Atlantean said simply as their ragtag group of nine made their way down the corridor. "But, one thing has not changed,"

"Somehow," Robin piped up from where he and Silverbird were walking at the front of the group, Dick keeping one eye on his girlfriend both to make sure she was still next to him, and to make sure she didn't lose it. "The bad guys are still getting inside intel on us,"

"Yeah," Kid Flash conceded. "But, at least we know none of us are the mole,"

"That's correct," Batman's voice was sudden as the Team entered the cave, even though he and Red Tornado had already been there for almost fifteen minutes, but it made Reese and Dick pause.

Danger. The two birds glanced at each other, wondering what exactly had set off their magic, considering no one else seemed particularly worried about anything, and the only other people in the cave were Batman and Red Tornado.

Then, Bruce continued speaking, and metaphorically sent Reese's entire world crashing down around her in a mass of emotional debris, all the while her head was still buzzing like a swarm of bees was flying around inside her brain.

"The mole..." the Dark Knight continued, pulling up a holo-screen of a person that Reese had known, that she had loved, and that had been by her side since the very beginning. "was Red Arrow,"

"Roy?" Dick breathed out, as Wally countered with a 'no way', before Kaldur chimed in after both of them, saying.

"Batman, that cannot be," Aqualad said. "Speedy was Green Arrow's protege. Silverbird's brother. We have all known him for years,"

"Unfortunately," Red Tornado explained. "The Roy Harper we have known for the last three years is another Project: Cadmus clone,"

"We've learned the real Speedy--" Batman continued, pulling up a holo-screen of Speedy from a few years ago as if they had all just suddenly forgotten what the redhead looked like. "--was abducted and replaced immediately after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick,"

Through all of this, Reese had stayed silent, from both processing the fact that it sounded as if her brother was a clone, of all things, and the fact that Batman was making it sound like Roy had been the one who betrayed them all.

Even though when the Team had taken down Parasite in Geneva, Red Arrow had said there was no mole, and he had been telling the truth.

"You're lying," Silverbird said simply, halting Bruce's exposé and making the Dark Knight turn and look at her, his face utterly expressionless as everyone else turned to stare at her, eyes wide, or, in Robin's case, face pale and freaked.

As it were, Batman wasn't phased.

"Am I?" he countered, effectively pausing the rant that the brunette had been psyching herself up for.

The problem was, Reese didn't know. In all her years, all the times where she had detected a lie or known instantly that someone was telling the truth, the only person that Silverbird had never been able to read was Batman.

And so, she had learned to trust him. Not as explicitly as Robin did, but in every instance past, Rhysalin Queen had always classified the Dark Knight as someone she trusted most.

Until now. Now she didn't know if Bruce Wayne was telling the truth or not, and that was what scared her. She was able to hear her own heart rate spike as Batman still stared at her, and for the first time in her life, Reese was scared of Bruce.

After several seconds in which Silverbird wrestled with her own inner thoughts on what this meant for her family, the fact that Red Arrow could be a mole, Batman and Red Tornado turned back towards the holo-screens, and the Leaguers continued their explanation of why exactly Red Arrow had betrayed themselves.

"The clone," Bruce was saying as Reese stepped backward a few feet to stand beside Dick again, with the Boy Wonder staring at his girlfriend for a few seconds, noting the paleness that had erupted across her face, before turning towards his mentor, thoughts running through his head at lightning speed. "Was pre-programmed with a drive to join the Justice League. Which is why he was so angry over any delays to his admission and why he refused to join the Team,"

Angry over any delays was right, considering Roy--Red Arrow--had stormed out of the Hall of Justice and effectively denounced Robin, Silverbird, Kid Flash, and Aqualad when it was revealed that 'the day' was revealed to only be a glorified press tour inside the Hall.

"This Roy Harper," Batman continued. "Had no idea he was a clone or a traitor," Bruce added the last part, almost sounding like an afterthought as he glanced towards Reese. "His subconscious programming then drove him to become League-worthy. So, he struck out on his own as Red Arrow. When he was finally admitted, his secondary programming kicked in and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage. Fortunately, I had already deduced Red Arrow was a clone. We were prepared,"

"Savage was subdued," Red Tornado added. "But, Red Arrow escaped. He is now a fugitive, armed and dangerous,"

"If you guys hadn't rescued me from Cadmus..." Conner trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, but Silverbird ignored him, looking again towards Batman as the young brunette felt Robin slip his hand into hers and give a semi-reassuring squeeze.

"What..." Reese felt her throat close up at the thought, and it took her a moment before she could continue. "What happened to the other Speedy?" 

Reese couldn't bring herself to say the real one, because as far as she was concerned, Red Arrow was the only Roy Harper she had ever known.

"We don't know," Batman answered simply. "He isn't at Cadmus. We have to face the possibility that the real Roy Harper...is dead,"

Dick didn't need to be standing right beside Reese in order to see his girlfriend start to shake. He tugged her closer, not caring at all if Artemis saw, or what she thought because as far as he was concerned, Reese's heart had just broken, and she needed to know that someone who loved her was still there. And right now, that meant him.

"The clone Roy," Kaldur spoke up, ever the picture of keeping his emotions in check. Dick couldn't relate. "The Team will find him,"

"Negative," Batman's voice was gruff, and it cut Aqualad off in an instant. "Red Arrow's a member of the Justice League now. Leave him to us," Bruce tapped his comlink and glanced off to the side before turning back to the roster of young heroes. "I'm needed on the Watchtower," the Dark Knight said simply. "Tornado, stay with the kids,"

With that, Batman turned around, and something in the back of Robin's mind started to itch, telling the Boy Wonder he was missing something, as the Zeta tube announced the Dark Knight's exit.

Recognized Batman 0-2

As soon as Batman was gone, Aqualad turned around to face the Team, his back towards Red Tornado, his face solemn.

'Clone or no clone,' Kaldur began simply over the mental link. 'Red Arrow was one of us. We will go after him,'

Leave it to Kaldur'ahm, the protege of Atlantis, to be the least judgemental out of a nonet of teen superheroes.

Just then, Red Tornado, who had walked up behind the Atlantean, suddenly seized up as if he had just been electrocuted, before completely freezing in place.

'Tornado!' M'gann exclaimed as she and Conner both stared at the still-as-death android, eyes wide.

'What happened to him?' Superboy asked, and Wally peered at the Leaguer as Robin glanced up from where he had opened his holo-computer.

'He's totally powered down,' the speedster added, and Dick glanced down at his wrist again.

'All functions offline,' the Boy Wonder said simply, before Zatanna, standing in the middle of the group braced her fingers against her forehead.

'Uh, guys?' the young magician piped up as Silverbird poked her head around Robin's shoulder to lightly nudge Red Tornado's idle form with the toe of her boot, the brunette's mind-clearing from the buzzing that had inhabited it earlier. 'I'm sensing a low-level mystic force at play. I-I don't know if it caused his shutdown but...now that I think about it, I was getting the same buzz off of Batman,'

'Batman,' Robin snapped his head up as a thought suddenly occurred to him. 'He called us kids. He never does that,'

Reese, who had been walking around Red Tornado looking for anything that might've led to the android's shutdown, suddenly noticed the small object that Tornado was holding in his hand.

But, just as the brunette reached out to touch it, Robin lurched forward and tugged her hand away, startling Silverbird so much she stood upright again.

'Don't touch it,' the Boy Wonder said after he had dropped her hand a moment later before Robin turned towards Wally. 'KF, you grab it,'

'Hell no,' the speedster retorted, eyes narrowing. 'If you're not letting Reese touch it, there's no way I'm gonna be the one taking it,'

'We don't even know what it is,' Artemis added, and Wally heaved a heavy sigh before he crouched down in front of Red Tornado and pried open the android's fingers.

'What is it?' Reese asked, yanking Dick forward so they were both staring at the thing Wally was holding.

'One of those biotech chips we confiscated off Cheshire,' Kid Flash answered simply, holding the chip up in front of his face, and Reese suddenly felt the buzzing return to her head, and both she and Robin let out identical shudders before stepping a few feet away from Wally and the mysterious chip.

'Something is not right,' Kaldur said simply, before glancing towards where Kid Flash had started to lean towards Robin and Silverbird with the chip still in his hand, held out towards the two birds as they both leaned further away. 'Wally, stop,'

The three other original proteges straightened up again, with Robin and Silverbird's faces paling as Kid Flash still held onto the biotech chip, somehow managing to not drop it in his haste to freak out his two best friends even more than they already were.

In hindsight, it was a terrible plan. But, Wally had also been trying to make Reese laugh. Once again, in hindsight, his methods might not have been the most sharp-witted.

'Robin, Kid, Silverbird, Zatanna, Rocket,' Aqualad continued once Kid Flash, Robin, and Silverbird had calmed down. 'See if you five can get Tornado back online. The rest with me to find Ro--' Kaldur cut himself off before saying the rest of Roy Harper's name. 'Red Arrow,'

'I should go with you,' Reese cut in before Kaldur's group could leave, and Aqualad looked back at her. 'I've known Red Arrow as long as any of you. I know where he might be going,'

But, Kaldur shut her idea down almost as soon as Reese had said it.

'No,' the Atlantean said simply, making Reese stop and draw herself up. 'You need to stay here. Help Robin. Our group is enough,'

'But--'

'I said no,' Kaldur's tone said it was final, and if Reese hadn't just found out that the brother she had stood by for her entire career as a superhero was actually a clone, she would've challenged him on it, but as it were, the brunette stood back, and allowed Aqualad to lead Artemis, Superboy, and Miss Martian out of the cave.

As soon as they were gone, and with one final wary glance towards his girlfriend, noticing that her temper was getting dangerously close to blowing, Robin consulted his holo-computer again.

'The problem's hardware, not software,' the Boy Wonder explained. 'But, where do we start?'

Reese had no idea, mechanics and technology had always been Dick's area of expertise, but Zatanna walked over so she was closer to the group, and Silverbird noticed the magician was staring up at the circular door in the ceiling of the cave that led into Red Tornado's living quarters.

"I have a thought..." Zatanna trailed off, but Reese quirked an eyebrow as she followed the magician's gaze up towards Tornado's apartment door, wondering what exactly Zee's 'thought' was.

Whatever Reese had been thinking, she didn't think it would be a second body.

It took less than ten minutes for the five heroes left behind in the cave to transport Red Tornado's other, remarkably human-like body--who, according to Zatanna, was named John Smith--down to the main floor.

Original.

Now, both Red Tornado and John Smith lay on separate tables in the cave with Rocket, Robin, Silverbird, and Zatanna staring down at them as Kid Flash plugged the two mechanical apparatuses into separate USB ports.

"Download in progress," Robin began as Rocket stared at the shirtless body of John Smith. Reese said nothing, still reeling at the fact that Red Tornado had an alter-ego of his own.

"So," Raquel began. "Tornado built this android...to party,"

"Uh...not how he'd put it," Zatanna explained. "But...yeah, more or less,"

Kid Flash, Zatanna, and Rocket were staring at Robin as they waited for the Boy Wonder to finish the download of Tornado's consciousness into the body of John Smith, and since Silverbird was standing right next to him, they were staring at Reese too, when suddenly the three other heroes saw both birds' bodies tense.

Reese drew an arrow in an instant and pointed it towards the Zeta tube, just as it turned on again, signifying the arrival of someone else.

Recognized Black Canary 1-3

Had it been any other situation, as soon as Dinah's designation number was announced, Silverbird would've lowered her bow, but considering the course that her life had taken over the last four years, and the information bombs that had repeatedly been dropped on her over the last twelve hours, Rhysalin Queen had started to learn to trust her gut, and her gut was saying that, despite the new arrival being Dinah, she was dangerous.

"Hey guys," the older blonde began as she stepped into the cave. "Just wanted to see how you were--Rhysalin Queen put down that arrow before you hurt someone!"

"I'll hurt someone?" Silverbird echoed, her grip not wavering on her bow. If anything, her hands tightened, and judging from the way Robin slipped one of his eskrima sticks out their holster on his back, holding it hidden at his side so Black Canary wasn't able to see, he was starting to get uneasy too.

"Don't be ridiculous," Dinah shot back. "I came in to check on how you guys are doing about Red Arrow, and instead I find you downloading Red Tornado's consciousness into a new body!"

"Are we though?" Wally piped up, waving his hands in front of Dinah's face as if he were a magician or something. "Maybe this is all just an illusion..."

Even if she hadn't been able to detect the lies of most people, Reese wouldn't have believed that Kid Flash--skeptic to the mystical arts--was any sort of magician, and it didn't seem as if Black Canary did either, because the blonde gave Wally a stern look that sent the redhead skittering back to where John Smith was still lying on the table, the holo-screen above him showcasing a steadily filling red bar, which, a couple of seconds later, dinged softly, and the words above it changed to read 'DOWNLOAD COMPLETE'.

"Okay," Wally continued, as Reese pulled back her bowstring again, the buzzing in her head coming back full force. "Maybe, it's not an illusion. But--"

He was cut off abruptly as John Smith, now inhabited by Red Tornado's consciousness, suddenly shot up into a sitting position, startling Robin and KId Flash, the two who were standing closest to him.

"Team!" the android shouted, mechanical eyes wide. "Get out of the cave, now!"

Silverbird heard Dinah's sharp intake of breath a split-second before she screamed and, dropping her bow, Reese met the Canary Cry with one of her own, the two hypersonic soundwaves meeting in a burst of noise that elicited a shockwave corporeal enough that it threw everyone else backward and quite literally tore John Smith in two, his upper torso slamming into Wally and knocking him back into Zatanna and Rocket, making all three of them fall to the ground.

But, even with Dinah's extensive training as Black Canary and a member of the Justice League, in every way, her scream was inferior to Silverbird's.

Black Canary was blasted backward, swallowing her own scream back down into her throat as Reese's Canary Cry overtook her, eventually slamming Dinah into the wall of the cave, just shy of knocking her back into the Zeta tube.

But, Dinah Lance was remarkably enduring, and though it was obvious that she was very delirious from Reese's scream judging from the way she wobbled as she got to her feet, she managed to stand back up, but the ten seconds it took for her to regain her bearings enough to be somewhat coherent again gave Robin enough time to leap over the table he had ducked behind when Silverbird had screamed, saving himself from the brunt of the shockwave.

The Boy Wonder leaped well over his girlfriend's head and threw a foot out towards one of her mentors, but Dinah wasn't also known as the best fighter in the League for nothing. Black Canary grabbed Dick's foot and yanked him forward, surprising both Robin and Reese as the blonde slammed Dick against the ground, knocking the wind out of him before she flipped him over her shoulder.

Black Canary went to scream at Robin again, and Silverbird as she skidded to a stop beside him if only to make sure that her boyfriend was okay, but Dinah wasn't able to speak.

When she had flipped Robin over, what the blonde had failed to notice was that Dick had clipped a small pellet of knockout gas onto the shoulder of Black Canary's jacket, and just as Dinah noticed it, the pellet exploded, releasing a small cloud of green gas into her face.

Rocket, who had managed to regain her bearings after being slammed into by John Smith, Zatanna, and Wally, made a force bubble appear around Black Canary, encasing Dinah within the blue transparent sphere.

Silverbird could hear her dad's girlfriend coughing, and her hand appeared through the cloud of smoke inside the bubble, pressing against the surface of the bubble for a moment before she quieted, slumping to the ground, knocked unconscious by Robin's gas pellet.

Once the blonde Leaguer was out cold, Zatanna and Kid Flash stood up as Silverbird, Robin, and Rocket relaxed a bit, though Raquel still kept the force bubble in place, just in case something were to happen again.

Zatanna was the first one to speak, with Reese still processing the fact that Dinah had attacked her. Like, not a weird in-depth training exercise. No, Black Canary had wanted to hurt her. To hurt them all.

"Black Canary a-attacked us?" Zatanna asked, sounding as if she couldn't believe it. 

Reese didn't blame her, if she hadn't been here as well when Dinah had entered the cave and hadn't had her necklace from Kent Nelson that alerted her to the incoming danger just before the Zeta tube announced Black Canary's arrival, she wouldn't believe it either.

"Black Canary is the least of our problems," John Smith answered the magician, pushing himself up onto his elbows, and Silverbird saw that part of the pseudo-skin that was covering the android's face had been torn away in the shockwave resulting from her and Black Canary's screams, revealing the metal skeleton beneath. "We must abandon the cave,"

In any other situation, Reese was sure she and the others would've argued with Red Tornado on this issue, but the day had been weird enough, so the five human heroes, with Wally carrying John Smith's naked torso like a sack of flour,  and Rocket levitating the force bubble holding Black Canary, hurried down to the grotto, where Sphere quickly morphed into the Super-Cycle.

The New-Genesisian vehicle had only just finished unfolding when the Zeta tube turned on again, and both her and Robin whipped around as Wally managed to maneuver John Smith's torso, Red Tornado's still body, and a now bound-and-gagged Black Canary into the back of the Super-Cycle, with Wolf jumping in as well.

Recognized Icon 2-0, Dr. Fate 1-7, Captain Marvel 1-5

Suddenly remembering that right before she and the rest of the Team had gone to meet Batman and Red Tornado, Reese had put Zira back in her bedroom so she was out of the way, and she hadn't had a chance to go back and get her.

Just as Robin was hopping into the seat of the Super-Cycle where he was able to pilot it, Silverbird ran out of the grotto, skidding down the hallway towards her bedroom and sliding the door open a split second before Icon flew past.

Knowing that she was desperately running out of time, Reese only took a brief moment to lean her head back against the door and take a breath, before standing up again and walking through her room to her closet, the door of which was open just a crack.

Just as the brunette pushed on the closet door to open it all the way, her vision split, and the sudden double-vision startled Reese so much she almost screamed, remembering to clap a hand over her mouth at the last moment.

"Are you insane?" she hissed, careful to keep her voice quiet lest she wanted any of the other Leaguers in the cave to hear her. "Warn me next time!"

"Warn you?" Dick echoed, his own voice rising in pitch as Reese saw his hands flex against the handles of the Super-Cycle. "You're the one who ran out of the grotto without a warning. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Sorry," the thirteen-year-old apologized softly, wincing internally but relieved all the same as she saw Zira curled up in the blanket-covered basket the baby gorilla used as her bed, safe and sound. "But, if we really need to abandon the cave, I couldn't just leave Zira behind. And I wasn't about to let the League get their hands on her,"

'I wouldn't either," Dick said quietly, as Reese gently picked a still-sleeping Zira up and held her against her shoulder. "But, you two have to be careful on your way back, pretty bird. I have a bad feeling,"

"I'll be careful," Reese told her boyfriend before her vision went back to normal, and then the brunette turned around, taking a deep breath and shifting her foot against the ground so she would be able to feel if anyone was coming.

Not sensing anything, Silverbird allowed the door to her bedroom to slide open, revealing the hallway beyond, only to freeze a moment before she stepped into the corridor.

Because there, levitating six inches above the floor, thwarting Reese from feeling any vibrations through the ground, was Captain Marvel, arms crossed over his chest. And because her room was sound-proofed, Silverbird hadn't been able to sense Billy's heartbeat either.

For a split second, Reese and Marvel stared at each other, before Captain Marvel lurched towards the brunette, hands reaching for her neck.

Luckily, Silverbird had seen Captain Marvel's body twitch a second before he moved and as he grabbed for her, Reese ducked, sliding under the Leaguer's arm and rolling, arms wrapped protectively around Zira, before stopping herself against the opposite wall of the hallway as Captain Marvel slammed into the nightstand inside Reese's bedroom, the wooden piece of furniture breaking into pieces beneath his weight.

Not waiting for him to regain his bearings, Silverbird bolted, her boots sliding against the floor as she rounded a corner on her way back towards the grotto. But, just as she was reaching the grotto, the entrance to the open cavern just within sight, Reese met Icon.

Rocket's mentor was blocking her way, his face just as stern and expressionless as Captain Marvel's had been, and again, just like Captain Marvel, Icon sped towards her, but, before he was able to grab her, something happened.

'Stop,'

A voice appeared inside Reese's head, a mental one much like the way M'gann spoke with when the Team was using the psychic link, but this voice didn't belong to Miss Martian, and it wasn't one that Silverbird recognized either. But, it sure worked on Icon.

The newly inducted Leaguer suddenly jerked to a stop, the wind from his cape blowing into Reese's face with the same force as when a car sped past you on the freeway.

Reese blinked, half expecting Icon to lunge for her again, but the older man didn't move. In fact, he didn't do anything, just floated there, in the center of the corridor, completely still.

Giving herself a shake, Silverbird shifted Zira--who by this point was awake and looking towards the grotto--in her arms and ran into the cavern, catching the attention of Robin, Kid Flash, Zatanna, and Rocket as the brunette clambered into the seat behind the Boy Wonder.

"Go, go, go!" Reese cried out, almost out of breath from both her run through Mount Justice and her encounter with Icon and Captain Marvel, but managing to convey her thoughts to Dick all the same.

Robin revved the engine of the Super-Cycle and Sphere took off, the hangar doors opening and allowing the five teen heroes, a baby gorilla, a hostage Black Canary, a powerless Red Tornado, and John Smith to escape the cave with nary a scratch.

Well, the android among them still had only half of a body, but regardless, the rest of them had escaped with nary a scratch.

"Stay off your radios," John Smith spoke up after a few minutes from where he lay in between Wally and Raquel, both arms hanging onto the bar in front of him for dear life, looking towards Robin. "Let the Super-Cycle track Superboy. Instruct her to mask all signals. We cannot allow the League to track us,"

"Right. Of course," Wally agreed. "Just one question. Why is the Justice League after us?"

Reese was wondering that as well, for a variety of reasons, but whatever it was she thought the answer was, she hadn't been expecting it to be what John Smith said when he answered Wally.

"The entire League is under the complete mental domination of Vandal Savage," the android began, and Reese's eyes widened as she heard everyone's heart rates spike as they processed this new information. "Red Arrow seems to have been his means," John Smith continued, and Silverbird glanced down again, opting instead to lose herself in the dizzying effects of the Super-Cycle flying hundreds of feet above the Atlantic Ocean instead of thinking of how her brother was actually the mole. "His method was something Savage referred to as 'Starrotech'. An alien bio-organism infused with nano-technology and magic. It shuts down the mind's autonomy, allowing Savage to reprogram the individual to suit his needs. Even my inorganic brain was not immune. But, the process requires 0.16 nanoseconds to fully integrate with its host's nervous system. That delay allowed me to create an internal sub-program that would disconnect my power cells if I attempted to infect another person,"

Which explained why Red Tornado had shut down back at the cave, Silverbird realized. 

Obviously, Tornado had been trying to infect Aqualad with the Starrotech--whatever that was--but the program he had created earlier had stopped him from completing it. The brunette also didn't think she would ever classify less than two-tenths of a nanosecond much of a delay, but whatever.

"Fortunately," John Smith continued. "The Starrotech is body specific. As John Smith, I am now free of outside control,"

"The Starrotech," Reese piped up, glancing over her shoulder at John Smith. "It worked on the entire League? Batman, Dr. Fate, my dad? All of them? And you weren't even able to fight back?"

"Indeed," John Smith answered simply. "A remarkable achievement. One not easily countered,"

"Hmm," Silverbird glanced up again as Robin gave a small hum, and she saw that Dick had turned around slightly in his seat to glance at her. "Guess Batman really was lying. He hadn't figured out that Red Arrow was the mole by himself. The entire time, Savage was controlling him,"

"It also explains the buzz we both got," Reese whispered back. "And why Batman called you a kid,"

"Where do you think he'll go?" Dick's next question caught Reese off-guard, and she tilted her head at her boyfriend, wondering what he meant, but the Boy Wonder elaborated a second later. "Red Arrow. Where do you think he is?"

"Where are we?" Reese asked, and Dick took one hand off the handles of the Super-Cycle and pulled up a map of the East Coast for a moment on his holo-computer, pointing to a small dot steadily moving down the seaboard.

"Here," Robin answered, pointing to the dot. "Off the coast of New Jersey," Silverbird thought for a moment, studying the map before she glanced towards Dick again.

"D.C.," she told him simply, and at her boyfriend's confused look, the brunette elaborated herself. "After he went solo, Roy--Red Arrow--," Reese quickly corrected herself, her voice catching in her throat for a moment before she was able to continue. "He put gear stashes in a few cities across the country. Gotham, Metropolis, Star, Miami. He put one in the capital too,"

"That has to be where the others went," Robin said, before turning back to the controls. It was a few more minutes before either of them said anything. The others were silent in the back too. "We'll find him, pretty bird. I promise,"

"I know we will," Reese said quietly, leaning forward so she was able to press her forehead against the back of Dick's shoulder, feeling tears in the corners of her eyes again. "But, what will he be like when we do?"

➳➳➳

It was a few hours before they reached Washington D.C., and Robin opted to pilot the Super-Cycle towards the Hall of Justice, thinking that would be a place that Red Arrow might've zeta'd too after the Watchtower.

From there, the Boy Wonder let Sphere find Conner, and it was another half hour before the sentient vehicle from New Genesis finally came to a stop, hovering in the air above the city.

Finally deciding to just risk it, Dick reached out with his mind, trying to get through to M'gann, if this was really where the Bioship was.

'Miss Martian,' he began. 'Are you in range?'

'Here, Robin', Dick heard M'gann's voice inside his fairly quickly, and subconsciously, the Boy Wonder let out a breath. 'Linking both squads and de-camouflaging.'

The Bioship wasn't just in D.C. as Reese had said, it was right above the Super-Cycle, and as the red-and-black Martian spaceship appeared in the sky, Robin piloted Sphere up into the hole that appeared in the bottom of the Bioship before parking the Super-Cycle inside.

'Great,' Robin answered as soon as the Super-Cycle was still. 'Because we really need to compare notes,'

As soon as the Super-Cycle was secure, and she was able to hear the others walking around, Reese handed Zira to Dick and hopped out, sprinting past Aqualad and Artemis as they entered the small room where the Super-Cycle was in order to throw her arms around Red Arrow's waist from where he was still sitting in a seat at the front of the Bioship.

"I don't care if you're a mole," she whispered, sounding choked up as Red Arrow sat, shocked still in front of her at the thought of Reese, famous among the hero community for her grudges, was actually hugging him after everything that she had found out. "You're still my brother,"

It took the redhead another thirty seconds before Red Arrow gathered himself enough to hug Silverbird back, and he let out a shuddering breath as Reese tightened her hold on him again.

Over the brunette's shoulder, Red Arrow saw Robin and Kid Flash enter together, and for several moments, all Dick did was stare at the newly-discovered clone and Red Arrow knew that the Boy Wonder was gauging how dangerous he was to Reese.

But, regardless of if he was a clone or not, Roy (god, could he even think of himself as Roy harper anymore?) had never had any feeling in him towards hurting Silverbird. If anything, much like she was to Robin, Reese was Red Arrow's weakness.

Seeming to come to the same conclusion--Red Arrow not being a danger, that is--Robin sat down across the Bioship from Red Arrow as Silverbird stood up straight again, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand before giving Red Arrow a shaky smile.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said quietly, and Red Arrow gave a small smile in return, though anyone was able to see that the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"You know," the older archer shrugged, attempting to remain as nonchalant as possible, for Reese's sake. "As well as I can be, given the situation,"

Silverbird opened her mouth to say something, likely to question Red Arrow on the fact that he had been the mole within the Team the entire time, even when he hadn't been a member of it, but before she could speak, Wally turned around in his seat to face the doorway as Kaldur and Conner, with Superboy lugging what looked to be half of a mechanical human body over his shoulder, walked back in to join the rest of them.

"So," the speedster began, crossing his arms over his chest and fixing his gaze on the Atlantean as Aqualad drew himself up to his full height. "What's our plan?"

 W A T C H T O W E R
December 31, 23:20 EST

It was hours before the Team had a viable plan that all of them semi-agreed on as an almost-surefire way to beat Vandal Savage and save the Justice League. It was hours before they were able to figure out a way to bypass the Starrotech and keep the older heroes from becoming re-infected.

So, while Black Canary--now cured of the Starrotech's influence--took Red Tornado and Red Arrow back to Vandal Savage, Red Tornado hopefully bypassed the Watchtower's security systems in order to allow the Team to slip inside without alerting Savage and whoever else he was working with, but judging from the dark magic that Queen Mera of Atlantis and Zatanna had found inhabiting the Starrotech, Silverbird had a feeling it was Klarion.

But, either way, luckily, the plan so far...seemed to be working. Considering their track record though, Reese didn't think it'd stay that way for long.

'RT did it,' Robin was saying as the nine of them crowded around the Boy Wonder's holo-computer. 'He wirelessly bypassed security for us as soon as he arrived. Savage shouldn't know we're here,'

'Move out,' Aqualad said simply, and Silverbird took a deep breath. 

Throughout the last three years, whenever they had worked with each other, she and Robin had always been paired together. Even before they were together romantically, the two birds always worked best when they were with each other. Call it cliché, but Reese and Dick both knew it was true.

But, now, they were diverting from that normative. Robin was going with Superboy, while Silverbird was teaming up with Artemis and Kid Flash. It wasn't that big of a deal, Reese had obviously partnered with Wally before, she had known him almost as long as Dick, and she and Artemis had worked together before too, in New Orleans once their feud, so to speak, had started, and on the Team itself, but it just wasn't the same.

This time, the stakes were different. The Team was fighting the Justice League. The strongest heroes on Earth, some the strongest of their own galaxies, and for once, Dick and Reese would be in completely different places on the Watchtower, not knowing who the other was going up against and only knowing through the arrowheads around their necks whether or not the other one was okay.

To say it rattled Silverbird would be an understatement. And judging from the way Dick was looking at her, Reese knew he was thinking the same thing.

But, they were out of time, and there was no way that either of them would be able to say what they wanted to without alerting the rest of the Team to their relationship, so instead, out of sight of the others, save for Wally and Kaldur, Reese reached forward and squeezed her boyfriend's hand a single time before she ran down the corridor with Kid Flash and Artemis, only glancing over her shoulder once to see Robins taring after her as he went to follow Superboy in the opposite direction.

The first place the three of them went to was a Zeta tube docking bay, where Plastic Man was moving crates out of the silent transporter and into the room itself.

Careful to keep their movements as quiet as possible, Silverbird and Artemis each nocked a separate arrow in their bows and shot them towards Plastic Man when he wasn't looking, the two weapons lodging into the crate the new Leaguer was currently holding and releasing twin clouds of smoke into his face.

Plastic Man stretched his neck out to get free of the smoke cloud, but the Team had been expecting that, so just as his head breached the dark-colored cloud into the cleaner air above, Wally sped forward and lightly slapped the Curotech--as the sixteen-year-old speedster had so lovingly dubbed it--onto the side of Plastic Man's neck, causing the hero to seize up and fall to the ground, unconscious.

One drawback of the Curotech when compared to its darker counterpart Starrotech: the former took longer to integrate, and until then, the Leaguers the Team saved were incapacitated.

As the trio made their way down another corridor, Silverbird heard the sound of unnaturally fast feet running towards them, and she dove, knocking both Kid Flash and Artemis down to the floor a split second before Flash would've run them both through, his vibrating hand going straight through a nearby column.

Reese didn't want to think what would've happened had Barry's hand gone through one of them instead.

The sound of a bowstring retracting made Reese flash her hand up, catching the green-fletched arrow inches before it would've hit her in the face. 

Green Arrow rounded the corner behind Flash, and for the first time in her life since Oliver Queen had taken her in, Reese did not recognize the man in front of her as her adoptive father.

Both Wally and Artemis's eyes were wide as the three of them still lay sprawled on the floor from where Silverbird had tackled them down earlier, staring in disbelief as Aquaman joined Green Arrow and Flash in front of them, all three Leaguers with identical looks of dark intent on their faces.

Before back in Mount Justice, it had seemed as if Red Tornado and Black Canary had just wanted to infect each of them with the Starrotech, but obviously, since then something had changed. 

And now the Justice League was trying to kill them.

"Run," Reese said simply, and she was only just able to see Wally grab one of her arms and one of Artemis's in each of his hands before Kid Flash sped them away, mere milliseconds before Aquaman slammed his fist into the floor of the corridor where they had been laying moments before, the stone cracking beneath his strike.

Flash chased after them, and for once in his career as a speedster, or maybe it was just all the adrenaline in his system, but now, Wally was faster than his uncle.

Kid Flash rounded a corner so fast Silverbird thought she might get whiplash, and Wally dropped the two teenage girls onto the floor of wherever they were now, bending over and bracing his hands against his knees, breathing heavily for a moment before he glanced around.

"Where...are...we...?" the redhead wheezed, still trying to catch his breath as he leaned back against the wall, and as Silverbird and Artemis stood up, Reese felt her heart drop to her feet.

"The cargo bay," she said simply and was able to see both Artemis's and Wally's faces pale out of the corner of her eye, just as Rocket's voice sounded in her head, reminding Reese that the psychic link was still up.

'Too bad Curotech doesn't work as fast as Starrotech,' Raquel was saying. 'We could use these guys!'

'It is a small miracle,' Kaldur retorted. 'That Queen Mera and Doctors Roquette, Spence, and Vulko were able to re-engineer a cure and vaccine at all,'

'Hey if you guys aren't busy...' Kid Flash cut in, him, Artemis, and Silverbird backing against a nearby wall as Flash, Green Arrow, and Aquaman caught up to them, the three Leaguers cornering them in the Watchtower's airlock.

'On my way,' Aqualad said simply. 'You three rendezvous with Robin and Superboy,'

As much as Silverbird would've liked to meet up with Robin and carry out the rest of the Team's battle against the Justice League at her boyfriend and partner's side, she had bigger things to worry about at the moment.

Artemis shot an arrow towards Flash as he sped towards her, but the Scarlet Speedster snatched them out of the air without a scratch marring his red suit before he slammed into Kid Flash, knocking Wally backward and onto the ground.

But, Silverbird was following Flash's movements with her eyes and as soon s the brunette knew where he was going to be next, Reese jerked her bow downward and instead shot twin arrows towards the ground just as Barry reached them, the resulting explosion throwing Flash backward and catching the attention of Aquaman and Green Arrow.

It was a good thing that Barry had speed-healing. Ollie, meanwhile, nocked another arrow into his own bow, and judging from the charge placed on the end of it, Reese had a feeling it was one of her dad's concussive ones.

As Green Arrow's fingers released his bowstring, Silverbird grabbed Artemis's arm and yanked her out of the way, the arrow (it was indeed a concussive one) hitting the wall instead and letting loose a resounding boom that the thirteen-year-old had a feeling would've likely deafened her had she been any closer.

'I'm amazed we're still alive,' Artemis breathed out psychically as she and Reese stood beside Wally, and the two more experienced proteges exchanged a glance before Kid Flash looked towards Artemis.

'It's cause they're being controlled,' Wally explained as Reese and Artemis drew back their bowstrings again. 'They're limited by whoever's pulling their strings,'

'I think it's Klarion,' Silverbird piped up, poking her head around the corner the three of them had ducked behind for a moment as they regained their bearings before she lurched back again before her dad, Barry, or Orin could see her. 'I mean, come on, who else has enough dark magic to be able to infect something like Starrotech that's powerful enough to control the Justice League?'

'You have a point,' Kid Flash agreed. 'The very thing putting us in danger is the only thing giving us a chance,'

'Artemis, Silverbird, Kid!' Just then, Aqualad's voice came from behind them, and the three turned in time to see Kaldur skid into the cargo bay, pulling and slamming the door shut behind him. 'Now!'

Reese drew another arrow, this one connected to a strong cable, and shot it across the room, the light gray arrowhead lodging into the door of the cargo bay beside Kaldur, before drawing the line taut, turning her bow horizontal so Wally and Artemis were able to grab onto it with her.

'Hold on,' Kaldur continued, and Kid Flash, Artemis, and Silverbird answered him in unison.

'Holding!'

Then, Aqualad reached across to the control panel of the cargo bay and pressed the big red button that controlled the doors of the airlock, the ones that led out into outer space.

Reese was able to feel the oxygen getting sucked out of the room, and she struggled to hold on to her own precious ounces of breath as the airlock doors began to open, the Justice League computer blaring out a warning.

WARNING. CARGO BAY VENTING ATMOSPHERE.

The wind that came from all the air getting sucked out of the room also came with enough force that it began pulling Silverbird, Artemis, and Kid Flash backward, and had they not been anchored by the cable connected to Reese's arrow, the three of them would've already been sucked into space.

As Green Arrow, Flash, and Aquaman began to get sucked backward, Silverbird unconsciously let out her breath, and then subsequently lost it, as she watched Kaldur strain against the force of the escaping air in order to press the airlock door button again, the cargo bay doors slamming shut just as Ollie, Barry, and Orin slammed into them, the force of the metal against their bodies knocking all three heroes unconscious.

Now that the Watchtower's artificial gravity was back into play, everyone fell to the ground, Green Arrow, Flash, and Aquaman out cold, while Silverbird struggled to catch the breath she had lost while the cargo bay doors had been open.

She unanchored the arrow and rolled the cable back up before placing it back in her quiver as Wally pressed three small Curotech chips onto the necks of Green Arrow, Flash, and Aquaman.

Just then, Reese's head buzzed, and the brunette let out a gasp that caught the attention of Kaldur, Wally, and Artemis, who looked over at Silverbird just as the thirteen-year-old's vision split, allowing her to see what Robin was currently seeing, and what it looked like was Hawkwoman's mace flying towards her face.

A second later, Silverbird's vision was back to normal, and her eyes turned back to dark brown from gold, but Aqualad had already grasped the severity of the situation, and he only gave Reese a single nod.

"Go," he said simply, and this time, Silverbird didn't argue.

She sprinted out of the cargo bay, only vaguely remembering the way to the garden terraces on the Watchtower from the cargo bay, but luckily it didn't take Reese that long to reach the spot where Robin, and she skidded to a stop a few yards behind her boyfriend just as Wolf jumped on Shayera's back, knocking the Thanagarian down and allowing Dick to place a Curotech chip on the side of her neck.

But, the Boy Wonder wasn't out of the woods just yet. Robin's head snapped up as he saw his girlfriend appear in front of him, but over his shoulder, Silverbird saw Wonder Woman, and Diana was twirling her lasso as if to make it into a noose.

"Duck!" she shouted out loud, letting her own vision split again and allowing Dick to see Wonder Woman behind him, also allowing Robin to roll out of the way just before the lasso would've captured him.

The Boy Wonder popped up again beside his girlfriend, Rocket coming up behind Wonder Woman and catching the Amazon off-guard enough that Raquel was able to form a force-bubble around the Themysciran princess.

Diana punched at the blueish bubble, but as far as Reese was able to see, Wonder Woman's assault wasn't leaving a scratch.

'Can she escape your force-bubble?' Robin asked, psychically, but Rocket just shook her head.

'Not if she keeps punching it,' the older girl answered. 'The kinetic energy only makes it stronger. But, I'm stuck here,' Raquel added as Robin ran off to the side, and Reese only just noticed Green Lantern--John Stewart--trapped beneath Sphere, and realized Dick was giving a Curotech chip to him too. 'Anything I do risks freeing her,'

Silverbird suddenly heard the subtlest rustle of a cape from above, and she whirled around as Robin psychically shouted a warning in time to see Batman leap down from the terrace above. 

Rocket was able to move out of the way in time, but Batman's arm caught Reese straight in the chest, and it threw her backward, the brunette only just managing to catch herself before she tumbled over the ledge.

And then there were two. Batman versus Robin. Mentor versus protege. Bruce Wayne versus Dick Grayson. Dark Knight versus Boy Wonder.

Robin was the first one to make a move. He threw a trio of smoke bombs towards Batman, but the Dark Knight managed to block them with his cape. But, the resulting smoke cloud allowed Robin to jump in, but in the resulting smoke cloud, he lost sight of Batman and unfortunately allowed his mentor to then land a solid punch to Robin's jaw, throwing the Boy Wonder backward.

Silverbird, meanwhile, had managed to pull herself up onto the terrace itself again, rather than just dangling over the edge by one hand, and saw that as skilled as he was, Robin was no match for Batman.

So, without another thought, Reese drew an arrow and shot it towards the Dark Knight, and though he was able to block it with his cape, it gave Robin another opportunity to try and get a hit in, and this time, the strike landed true.

Batman stalked towards the two birds, and Silverbird barely registered Superboy crashing through the floor a few yards away from her as she shot another arrow towards Batman, and Robin threw a few batarangs.

Batman, meanwhile, threw something down himself, and only after it exploded, and Reese was both blinded by a bright flash of light and momentarily deafened by a loud 'boom', did she realize it was a stun grenade.

Both her and Dick were affected by the grenade, Reese moreso than her boyfriend though, and while she was trying to regain her vision and hearing, Silverbird felt Batman lock both arms around her from behind like a vise, holding her in place.

Her vision was beginning to clear enough that Reese was able to see Dick standing in front of his mentor, both eskrima sticks out and held steady, but Robin stood still knowing that any movement he made risked hurting Silverbird.

So, Reese took the initiative instead. 

First, she drew her foot forward before slamming her heel down onto Batman's boot, crushing his own foot beneath and causing the Dark Knight to seize up. Then, Silverbird threw her entire weight backward, knocking Batman off-guard even more as both of them fell back, Reese allowing her entire body weight to slam down on the Dark Knight once they hit the floor, dazing Batman to the point of almost deliriousness.

And finally, while he was momentarily incapacitated, Silverbird twisted over, her small stature allowing her to sit on the Dark Knight's chest as she punched him twice across the face, her hair coming loose from its braid.

Black Canary had said once that she thought Silverbird would be able to beat Batman in a fight one day. Well, Reese had just proved she could.

Pressing the Curotech chip to the side of Bruce's neck, Silverbird stood up again, stepping back from an unconscious Batman as her hood fell down around her shoulders and she ran one hand through her loose brown-and-silver curls, only for the thirteen-year-old to give a startled squeak as Robin suddenly lifted her up in the air and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss that momentarily made Reese dizzy.

"What was that for?" she asked once Dick had set her down again, but the Boy Wonder only gave her a grin that sent his entire face ablaze with admiration.

"You're amazing," he answered. "Just...wow,"

Reese felt her face flush at the compliment, and Dick pressed his forehead against hers for a moment, threading his gloved hands through her hair and taking a deep breath, relieved that they were both okay before the ground around them shook, and it reminded the couple that while they had been going up against Batman, Conner had been fighting Superman, and though the Dark Knight was currently adjusting to the Curotech, the Man of Steel certainly was not.

As she and Robin leaped down to the terrace below where Superboy was going up against Superman, Silverbird drew an arrow in midair and let it fly, the lead casing around the end of the arrow falling off as it sped towards the two Kryptonians, revealing the glowing green kryptonite arrowhead beneath, and the arrow lodged into Superman's shoulder, making the Man of Steel falter and allow Conner to grab onto him and yank him backward, slamming both of them into a nearby wall and pressing Reese's kryptonite arrow even further into the last Kryptonian's skin.

Robin then reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small box, flipping open the lid to reveal a small chunk of pure kryptonite inside, the glow from it bathing both Conner and Clark in its green light.

Conner may not have been fully Kryptonian like Superman was, but he still had part Kryptonian DNA in his system, and as such, was also affected by the kryptonite's poisonous properties, though not as severe as Clark was.

Dick only had the kryptonite visible for a few seconds, only long enough for Superman to be incapacitated enough for the Curotech to be placed on his neck, and as soon as it was done, he snapped the lid of the box closed.

"Kryptonite..." Conner trailed off as he sat up again, and Silverbird went to stand by the shoulder of Superman that she had shot with her kryptonite arrow. "...hurts,"

"Which is why Batman keeps it in an overwhelmingly impenetrable vault in the Batcave," Robin told him, holding out a hand for Superboy to grab before the Boy Wonder pulled the genomorph up. "Well," Robin added, both he and Superboy wincing as Silverbird reached forward and grabbed the shaft of her arrow before pulling back and yanking it out of Superman's shoulder, the small green arrowhead dripping with the Man of Steel's blood. "More like a whelmingly penetrable vault,"

"You have kryptonite arrows too?" Conner asked Reese, sending the brunette a wary look, and Silverbird glanced up at him.

"Batman and Robin have their kryptonite vault," she explained simply as she wiped off the blood from the arrowhead and snapped another lead casing on the end before placing it back into her quiver. "Green Arrow and I have our own arsenal of kryptonite. Just in case,"

"Right..." Superboy trailed off for a moment before he spoke again. "Just in case,"

With Batman and Superman now both working off the effects of the Starrotech, and Rocket and Miss Martian taking care of Wonder Woman, that left Robin, Silverbird, and Superboy to head up to the main entrance area of the Watchtower, where Aqualad, Zatanna, Artemis, and Kid Flash were standing over a legless and armless Red Tornado.

It looked like, unfortunately, that Savage and Klarion had gotten away, but honestly, with how slippery the Witch Boy was, Reese had kind of expected that.

"Congratulations, Team," Red Tornado was saying as Robin, Silverbird, and Superboy reached the other group, Rocket, and Miss Martian joining them a few seconds later. "You have won the day,"

Just then, a holo-screen appeared, showcasing the new date and time: JANUARY 1, 00:00 EST. Reese had totally forgotten, through all the chaos of today, or technically, yesterday, that it had been New Years' Eve.

As the first notes of an instrumental version of Auld Lang Syne filtered through whatever speakers the Justice League had installed in the Watchtower, Silverbird felt Robin grab onto her hand, tugging her towards him, his intentions pretty clear.

But, before he could kiss her, Reese held a finger up between them, and Dick's lips pressed against that instead.

"What about Artemis?" she whispered hurriedly and was only just able to see Dick's eyes flick over her shoulder for a moment before he turned back to look at her again. 

"I think she's busy," he whispered, and Reese spared a glance over her shoulder in time to see Wally finally mustering up the courage to kiss Artemis. "Please, pretty bird?" Dick asked as Reese turned back to him. "If it's really that big of a deal, we don't need to, but we can always say that Robin didn't know you were dating Dick Grayson, and he kissed you because he's in love with you, which, I mean, is true but..."

Reese cut Dick off from his babbling by taking the initiative again that night and pressing her lips to his, effectively stopping him from whatever he had been about to say next.

Meanwhile, on the floor, Red Tornado spoke what could only be classified as a cross between genuine curiosity and robot sarcasm.

"Human customs still elude me."

W A T C H T O W E R
January 1, 03:10 EST

It was over an hour before all of the Leaguers were completely adjusted to the Curotech, and another two after that before Red Arrow was able to give his statement to Batman, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, Robin, Aqualad, and Silverbird.

But, that was where Reese found herself now, sitting in between Dick and Dinah as Red Arrow essentially fell apart in front of her, and there was nothing that the brunette could've done to stop it. Because she hadn't known.

"Everything I thought I knew about myself was a lie," Red Arrow began, his voice dreadfully void of any important feeling or emotion. "I'm not a hero or a sidekick. I'm a traitor. A pawn,"

"Roy," Dinah began, setting one hand on top of Red Arrow's arm. "It'll be alright--"

"I'm not Roy," Red Arrow cut her off and jerked his arm out from under Black Canary's hold. "I don't know what I am. All I know is I need to find the real Roy. I need to rescue Speedy,"

Reese slumped down in her chair as she saw her dad's face turn downcast and he glanced away. Silverbird felt Robin lace his fingers with hers before they both turned towards Batman as the Dark Knight spoke up again.

"Guardian is already searching Cadmus," he said simply.

It was a little while later that Green Arrow, Red Arrow, and Black Canary left the meeting room, and while usually, Silverbird would've gone with them, she needed time to process, and so she stayed.

She studied the two heroes from Gotham for a moment and noticed Robin shifting in his chair as he avoided her gaze.

"What else is there?" she asked. "What else is wrong?"

Robin and Batman exchanged a glance, and Dick let out a sigh, but out of the two of them, he was the first one to speak, before fiddling with the holo-screen in front of him.

"The entire League was under Savage's spell for just over a day," Robin began, before pulling up a bigger holo-screen that showcased the pictures of Batman, Wonder Woman, John Stewart's Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Hawkwoman. "We've accounted for most of that time, but these six," he continued, gesturing to the photos of the Leaguers. "went missing for a full sixteen hours we can't account for,"

"Sixteen hours," Batman echoed quietly. "What did we do?"

-----

AHHHHHHH! It's done, after almost two years, I have finally finished s1 of TR&TC! I am so so excited to start on the chapters within the five-year gap, but in order to not have this book be over one hundred chapters, with most of those being non-canon to the actual show, I will be posting the five-year gap chapters in my other YJ book, "Boy Wonder & Pretty Bird", which is already on my profile.

The format will be that I will post each "year", so to speak, of chapters in order, and then in between the years, I will do an AU or request (which you can still send in, BTW; the first one will be a request based off of the Son of Batman movie).

Years 1 & 2 have three chapters each, year 3 has four chapters, and year 4 has five. Year 5 has the most at maybe eight, considering I'm also going to do the Young Justice: Legacy video game, and the Invasion tie-in comics within that year as well, plus four non-canon chapters.

Hope you guys are excited for what comes next in Dick and Reese's story because I know I am!

Until next time...

~Matia~