Noire (Kid Flash x OC)

// Twenty Four || Salvage \\

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

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

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

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

"Oh, really?"

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

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

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

"It probably takes a lot of time and a lot of money to create a clone, so if anything you're not cheap," I commented, not thinking before I spoke. Roy glared at me and I awkwardly glanced away. "Sorry, not helping, I know."

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

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

"We get it, you're a clone," Jim says, stepping forward. "But you're not the only clone on this rooftop. And I know from personal experience how tough it was to come to grips with being a copy of someone else. That's why I gave up my identity as Guardian, so that I could figure out exactly who Jim Harper is supposed to be."

"That's not the only thing you gave up."

"Roy, you know we both spent years looking for the original Speedy and everyone else here did the same. We never found him because the Light didn't keep him alive. It was the Cadmus policy to delete the source material. He's dead, brother. Which is all the more reason you have to live, to honour the Roy that was."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Hey! I'm not a clone," I said, nudging him.

"All done?" Red Arrow asks. "You want to salvage someone's soul? Go get Kaldur to see the light. From what I hear? He needs course correcting. But leave me out. Write me off. Or don't. Either way, blow."

"Kaldur?" I whispered to Wally, not watching Red Arrow run back off into the night. "What-what about Kaldur?"

He sighed, avoiding eye contact. "I'll tell you later."

"They lied to you about Kaldur," Natasha states. "That is plainly obvious. Do not let them get away with that."

"Yeah, but there must be a good reason for it. I trust Wally and Dick."