Fic: Family Ties, Parts 7 & 8
(embarrassed cough) I, uh, actually forgot. Thanks to Deann for popping me on the head and saying "did you forget something?" And the answer would be "yes, I forgot to post last week". (face palm) So to make up for it...have two chapters. (more embarrassed throat clearing) Yeah.
Three hours after Superman, Steel, the SCU squad and eventually the FBI cleared out the Waynetech warehouse of bomb assembly equipment, Roy swung by his mother's rented apartment to find it spotlessly empty. He expected it but admitted to himself he was disappointed all the same. He joined his comrades in arms at the Justice League Watchtower, walking in to a packed conference room that went deathly silent at his arrival. He arched an eyebrow at Black Canary, who just shook her head.
Roy started to feel a little paranoid by the time he got to his seat, all those eyes boring into him, wondering, calculating...judging. He should be used to it, he thought almost resentfully. They judged him all the time.
"Well, we can always thank one of the Arrow clan in keeping our lives less than boring," quipped Booster Gold awkwardly. A few people shot Booster a dirty look and his half-cheerful grin slid away. Booster wasn't known for his sensitivity or tact, after all.
"Good work today, Red Arrow," began Superman but a few people made scoffing noises. "Is there a problem?"
"One got away," noted Captain Atom, easily the person who's stick up his ass was more rigid than the one up Batman's butt. "It should be noted that she is possibly Red Arrow's mother. That makes him immediately suspect."
"Why?" asked Nightwing hotly. "He's never met her before today!"
"He says. How do you know?" countered Captain Atom, with equal fervor. "Not all the equipment was confiscated. FBI reports that some of the bombs had already been assembled. Who knows where they are and he," Atom gestured at Roy angrily, "walked away from the one who most likely has the information about the entire operation!"
Nightwing bristled and opened his mouth to counter the argument but Roy laid an arm on Nightwing's shoulder, causing the other man to look at him in surprise. Roy shook his head. "He's entitled to be a suspicious asshole, so let him."
Captain Atom's eyes narrowed. "I beg your pardon?"
"You call me an accessory to a potential terrorist bombing, I can call you an asshole," Roy responded easily, but those who knew him well knew the cold green fire in his eyes did not bode well. Roy's temper ran as three types: immediate brief explosion easily forgotten five minutes later, slow burn that turned into a grudge held until Hell froze over, and an explosion so violent and terrible that it made Krakatoa's explosion in 1883 feel like a mild tremor. Captain Atom was pushing buttons that rarely, if ever, got pushed to the degree they were being pushed now.
"Drop it," Superman advised Captain Atom. He didn't know Roy well enough to know the look, but he recognized the immediate tension and unease in those who did. "Red Arrow is beyond suspect. We cannot choose blood but we can choose the rest." Captain Atom slanted Superman a mutinous look but did as he was bid. "In the meantime, Captain does bring up a valid point. Some bombs were obviously assembled. Batman and Nightwing are working on analyzing all the components for a rough idea of shape, dimensions and whatnot. I'm requesting we step up security at all League and member locations and I expect those here to advise those not here to keep their eyes peeled. We still don't know what the initial target was, though I think it's safe to say it may have been or still is The Hall of Justice."
Captain Atom muttered something only Superman could hear but Superman ignored him. There was a general shuffling about as the meeting adjourned. A few people gave encouraging or supportive smiles to Roy. Batman gave him a long, unreadable look but since Roy got those every day from Batman he ignored it. Wonder Woman embraced him, which startled him, as she wasn't normally demonstrative with him.
"If you need anything," she told him maternally, "you will let me know, of course." It was not a suggestion.
Roy gave her a weak smile. "Yes, ma'am." She patted his cheek and sauntered away. He looked in askance at Donna Troy, standing by Nightwing. She arched an inquisitive eyebrow at him and he shrugged. He turned away from his friends' piercing stare. He was starting to feel like a bug under a microscope.
Now he was under the most powerful magnifying lense on the planet. Batman stood right behind him, not crowding him, but close enough for Roy that his arm almost slammed into the taller man as he swung around. The two men eyed each other a moment before The Batman spoke. "I expect to be kept in the loop, Red Arrow," the older man said formally, "as anything you discover may help us determine further information regarding the devices and the target."
Roy tilted his head to one side. Batman's words, while perfunctorily delivered, was an unnecessary repetition of Superman earlier. Batman never repeated the obvious and an underlying current in his tone indicated something else: understanding. Roy suddenly felt ten feet tall and invincible. Despite his questionable track record, Batman was relaying that he knew Roy was doing the right thing and being true to himself. *And approved.* Roy knew he was right when Batman gave one sharp nod, turned with a sharp twist and swirl of his cowled cape and strode away.
When Batman paused to glare at Nightwing into following, the blue and black clad man laughed, shot his red-haired friend a mischievous wink and did as he was silently bid. Roy knew that despite the few rumblings during this meeting, Batman's approval would go a long way to quieting any doubters. He relaxed.
Green Arrow and Green Lantern watched the production before them with knowing eyes. They recognized exactly what Batman did and Oliver blessed the overbearing autocrat for it. Any defense that Oliver, Hal or Dinah could give would have been ignored or put down as favoritism or nepotism. Roy and Bruce's headbutting over various issues was common knowledge and even Nightwing's influence didn't bridge a lot of the sniping between the two wholly different men.
"This," Green Lantern announced to anyone within earshot, "is going to suck rotten eggs." Black Canary clamped down on a giggle, especially since she was thinking the exact same thing. "Roy is damned if does and damned if he doesn't."
Green Arrow scowled at the pronouncement and stalked over to Roy, who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room with Vixen prattling at him. "I need a beer and I need to buy you a beer," he informed his surrogate son. Roy looked startled at the interruption but vixen didn't bat an eyelash.
"Let me know if you need back up, Roy," she said airily and sauntered away with a swish of her shapely hips that left both archers admiring.
"She's gotta be a wildcat in the sack," Ollie murmured and Roy sputtered on a laugh.
"You are incorrigible, old man," he told his mentor. "You said you were buyin'? About damned time."
* * *
It took Aiofe three days to lose the FBI. As soon as Roy left her apartment she packed her things and left. She was compromised, staying there would avail her nothing. Six hours later, word came through that the assembly location had been raided by the Justice League, Metropolis Police and the FBI. She was thankful that six bombs got made. Six was more than enough, Her problem now was what was she going to do? Half her team was in custody, the other half on the run like herself. With no safehouse, no rock safe enough to crawl under and no allies, Aiofe was sorely tempted to take her son up on his offer but she couldn't. That would mean admitting defeat and she would never do that.
It would be admitting her life's work was done for nothing, that she was a failure. That thought alone got her ire up.
She got out of Metropolis by the skin of her teeth, tooling down a rather crummy state highway to a small airstrip where she rented a two seater plane. Once in the air, she amended her flight plan from Atlanta, Georgia to St. Louis, Missouri. From there she filled up the tank and set off once more to Denver, Colorado, repeating the pattern all the way to Star City. She didn't think about the whys and wherefores. Something within her urged her to go, so she did.
As she flew the blue skies over the Midwest, the Great Rocky Mountains and onto the West coast, her thoughts turned to two subjects: the son she thought she lost forever and the fate of the only man she'd ever loved. Roy's occupation and the scant background she had on his former identity as the sidekick "Speedy" meant that Liam was dead. How, she did not know, nor when. Somewhere on this huge continent his body lay interred, hopefully with the blessing of the Holy Church. Their son was an intriguing mix of both Aiofe and Liam but also his life without them.
His build, his body shape, his face, even the color of his hair and the tone of his skin was William Harper Senior. His eyes, his manner and apparently his fighting spirit was all his mother. There was something else, though, an otherworldliness about him. He mentioned that he was raised by the Navajo in the southwest. Her knowledge of native tribes in America was scant and mostly from John Wayne movies. Aioife was fairly certain they were inaccurate. She resolved to find a used book shop and see if there was anything useful there.
Her thought drifted away from Roy specified to her grandchild. Aiofe couldn't repress a smile. Was the child a boy or a girl? She hoped it was a girl but wouldn't quibble either way. She'd always wanted a baby girl. She had not been disappointed with a boy when Roy was born but she never got further chances for motherhood. A serious run-in with an unknown fever in backwater Africa ended any possibilities of more children. Was that why she was going to Star City? To find the family she'd long since given up on?
Aiofe shook herself from her melancholy reverie. Now was not the time for foolishness. Everything she believed in since a teenager was at stake. She could not fail...and yet...would it really be that bad?
* * *
Roy stood outside his grey SUV, shaded glasses killing the glare from the bright sun as he waited on his daughter to come running out from school. It was early fall, early enough that the leaves hadn't turned but late enough to need a jacket when it approached dusk. Lian was adjusting somewhat to her new school but she didn't like it, he knew. He didn't know what to do about it.
The bell rang and the screams and shouts of children rent the air like gulls over a garbage heap. Soon a steady tide of children of all ages came scampering out the huge front doors, backpacks swinging and legs pumping like they were two legged gazelles. He remembered that feeling. "Get out," he whispered to himself melodramatically, "get out while you can! Or you'll never leave!"
His smiles and polite nods to various parents who came to pick up their offspring around him turned into a genuine grin of delight as his mischeivous angel exited the building. Her eyes were alight with excitement as she ran toward him. She was waving a large peice of paper with multiple glued items on it but he couldn't tell what exactly it was.
"Look, Daddy!" she shouted at him as she drew nearer.
"Whatcha got there, princess?" Roy asked in amusement, already resigned to framing another work of art for their hallway. Currently, Lian fancied herself a budding artist and Oliver began framing her artwork from school as if they were Rembrandts or Monets.
She thrust the sheet at him, beaming proudly while he made the prerequisite oohs and aahs over the rather crooked cutout scarecrow surrounded by crayon-drawn crows in a field of glued on popcorn kernels as wheat. It was kinda cute, he thought in amusement, and at least he could recognize what it was. The last peice looked like something Picasso would have done, complete with an accidental extra eye.
"Wow! Just in time for harvest!" he enthused and Lian's smile brightened even more. "Let's go get something to eat. You hungry?"
"Hamburger!" she said enthusiastically.
"I was thinking Greek," he told her.
"Gyro!" she amended with equal enthusiasm.
"She's beautiful, mac." The voice was soft and came from the other end of the vehicle.
Roy reacted immediately, snatching Lian into his arms and putting her into the car fast enough that people blinked and missed it. He faced the exhausted woman who was watching him with sad green eyes so like his own. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Stay in the car," he told his daughter when she made to open the door again.
"I don't know," shrugged Aiofe. She made no movement toward him or his daughter but Roy didn't relax. "I flew here."
"How'd you get on a plane?" Roy snapped. "They've got all the terminals watched."
She gave a short laugh. "I flew the plane, mac, I didn't board as a passenger." Roy gaped at her a moment and then scowled. "Once I got in the air I amended my flight plan. I had to see you again, see my grand-" Her voice choked. "Granddaughter. You never said what gender. I've been consumed with needin' to know." Her brogue grew pronounced as emotion overtook her. "I lost so much, you've no idea how much." Aiofe's eyes turned to Lian, who was staring at her in wary bemusement through the slightly tinted windows of the SUV. "She is very beautiful. She'll break hearts, she will."
"Like her mother," Roy growled, "but I'll be damned if she turns out like her mother or her grandmother."
"Or her father?" Aiofe steeled herself for the backlash.
"Or her father," Roy conceded. "God knows, my track record sucks in the women department. Apparently it's something else I have in common with my father." Aiofe flinched. "Why are you here?"
"I wasn't goin' to hurt you or her, I swear it," she said fervently but Roy interrupted her.
"Maybe not but any of your cronies could have traced you right to me," Roy told her grimly. "My daughter is in enough danger just by being the child of her parents without you throwing in more fuel for the fire."
Aiofe gave him a long look, stung by the continued rejection. "Do ye give her mother the same guff, mac, that yer givin' me?" Roy's scowl turned thunderous and she knew she'd struck a nerve. "I know yer feelin' betrayed. I am too. I thought ye were dead. Whoever yer father worked with planned yer disappearances well." She hesitated. "I had no intention of giving up but-" She hesitated. Roy lifted an eyebrow. "I don't want to talk about it here. I heard ye sayin' to L-Lian," she stumbled over the name, "that ye were goin' for food. Can I attach myself to ye?"
Roy frowned as he studied her. She seemed sincere. More than that, she seemed lost. Wondering if this was another rash impulse he was going to regret Roy reluctantly nodded. "Did you drive?"
She hesitated again and Roy realized she had...in a stolen vehicle most likely. He sighed heavily and motioned to the car. "Get in. Lian, get in the back seat," he told his daughter through the window. Lian scrambled obligingly. Roy could see the fire of curiosity in her wily gaze. His daughter missed nothing and was clever as a fox.
Sure enough, the adults were buckled up and pulling away from the school when Lian chimed with perfect innocence, "Are you my Daddy's momma?"
Aiofe slanted a look at Roy, but he made no outward sign. She turned around and smiled tentatively at the child, who was now digging in her backpack for something. "Yes, I am. When he was a baby, I always called him Sweet William."
"Like the flower?" Lian asked, still digging.
Aiofe drank in the sight of her granddaughter. She had Asian features, brown eyes, black hair long enough for a pony tail but her skin tone was a bit lighter than traditional Asian. She also had a buoyant personality and a sparkle to her eyes that was obviously from her father. Aiofe marveled for a moment longer and turned back to face forward. She caught her son sneaking a sideways glance at her.
"Speak." His tone was brusque.
"Daddy, be nice," admonished Lian idly. Roy scowled but said nothing in return, which made Aiofe smile to herself.
"I'm havin' a change of heart. I hadn't planned on one. Flew here intent on not doin' it, actually," she explained, suppressing her twinge of guilt. "But the more I thought about you and my grandchild-"
"Granddaughter," Lian corrected.
"I didn't know that, garinion," Aiofe told her, turning around again. She was confronted by a large sheet of brown paper folded in half. "What's this?" she asked amused.
"A present for you. I drawded it for you today in school." Lian was extremely matter-of-fact about the gift, handing it over as if it were a priceless treasure she'd spent days creating for just this occasion.
"I don't know that word," Roy said quietly. He watched both his mother and the road as the woman in his passenger seat slowly opened the drawing of a man and a little girl standing by a log cabin awash in the colors he and she adored about their Arizona getaway. Next to the house were two new features Roy had never seen before in other drawings of their log cabin home. A woman with brown hair and a tombstone with the initials WRH on it.
Aiofe was staring at it. She turned it a bit to see better and Roy saw on the other side of him and Lian's figures Lian's usual representation of Cheshire, her mother, Jade Nguyen. "That's our family," Lian was explaining. "All of us. Mommy, Daddy, me, you and Grandpa Will."
Roy was a little surprised to see tears welling in the woman's eyes. "He's dead then?"
"Did you imagine he abandoned me?"
"The word means 'granddaughter'," Aiofe said instead, not even blinking back the tears. She let them slide down her cheeks. It was the saddest drawing of a family she'd ever seen but at least Lian had a family to draw. Aiofe never had that much. She focused on her son's words. "No, I know he would never have abandoned you. How-"
"Technically I guess you could say he did abandon me." Roy turned into the parking lot of he and Lian's favorite Greek takeout restaurant. "He left me sitting on a blanket at the edge of a forest that was on fire. In his defense, the fire was a long way off, but he was the one who knew the terrain where it was spreading the best, so he was called in to help some trapped hikers. He left me with some teens who reported the hikers in the vicinity."
"He was a firefighter then?" Aiofe asked, wiping away her tears.
"No." Roy shook his head. "He was a park ranger. A damned good one, from what everyone told me. He knew every rock, every tree, every shrub and was probably the only park ranger in the area trusted by most of the native tribes."
"Ye mentioned the Navajo?"
"we're Dine!" Lian exclaimed. "Bitterwater clan because of Brave Bow."
Aiofe turned an questioning look upon her son, who was uncomfortable with the line of inquiry. "A man named Raymond Begay was given custody of me because my father lost his life saving members of his clan. The Navajo take their debts and obligations very seriously. He raised me as he would his own grandson, since he was old enough to have been my grandfather." Roy's mind drifted a bit in the memories. "But he was old and in ill health, so eventually he found me a new guardian."
"Oliver Queen."
"Gran'pa Ollie," Lian corrected absently. "Gyros, Daddy. I'm hungry."
"We better feed the monster or she'll turn into a T-Rex," Roy teased as he swung the door to the car open. He ignored his daughter's protests that she'd rather be a triceratops as he watched his mother carefully fold the drawing up and tuck it into a belt purse at her waist. "You comin'?" he asked.
Aiofe looked up, startled.
"I'm buyin'. They got the best hummus in Star City."
Aiofe's face creased in a tentative smile of pleasure and she daintily exited the SUV. Lian shoved her hands in each of the adults and chattered at them in rapid fire speech as they entered the restaurant. For the first time in her adult life, Aiofe knew what it was to be accepted just as you were.
Lian made a mess out of her Gyro as Roy expected. She had the sauce all over her face and bits of herb in her teeth. Lian was having a great time, however, telling her life story to Grandma Aiofe. With the agility of a child used to speaking languages other than English, Lian had no issues pronouncing Aiofe's name in 'proper Irish', as Aiofe primly told her. Lian giggled for a five minutes over the fact that her daddy was called "mac", teasing him that he was like the boy at school named Mac.
Aiofe for her part marveled at the difference between the hard-bitten 'soldier of fortune' she met in Metropolis and the patient single father who wiped his daughter's face with a napkin dampened by the sweat on his water glass. They talked of desultory matters in public, not wanting to alarm anyone. Once back in the car, however, Roy admonished Lian to be quiet while he and his mother talked 'business'.
"So, what are you wanting? A deal?" Roy drove aimlessly, turning in random patterns, occasionally looking in the rear view mirror for possible tails from a lifetime of training.
"Somewhat," she hedged. "I hadn't thought it through, to be truthful."
"What are you willing to tell us?" Roy frowned when a red sports car swerved by them with some rowdy teenage girls screeching cheerfully at them from inside. "I can't guarantee what Interpol will do."
"I know." Aiofe sighed heavily, guiltily. "I want a chance, Roy, 'tis all I ask for. More than I deserve. It still sets wrong with me what I'm doin' here with ye but dammit," she paused and gave Lian a guilty look but the girl wasn't paying them any mind now. She was frowning over some papers with math problems on them. "The more I thought about you and the thought of what you were, had become without me, the worse I felt, the more lost I felt. I've no ties in this world except you and I'm loathe to just chuck it all out a window." She stared out the window morosely. "I'm not old to be this stubborn as of yet."
To her surprise, he started laughing. "Can you please tell that to Ollie?" Roy wheezed. "He seems to be under this impression stubborn and stupid is required by law the older you get."
Aiofe smiled sadly. "Perhaps for those that have nothing to lose. I however, find I finally have something to lose and don't want to lose it anymore. Once was enough."
Roy considered her words and her tone. She sounded sincere but he wasn't always the best judge of character. "I want you to meet some people. I'm not known as the most level-headed guy. I'm a bit too emotional for some people's peace of mind."
"I'll meet whoever you want, mac, just give me a chance."
Aiofe sounded sincere enough that Roy nodded. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Hey, short pants, you'll never guess who came to dinner."
* * *
They met in Gotham city at Batman's insistence, in costume which made Roy sigh heavily but he made no further comments. The location was an old office building that Roy was fairly certain belonged to Wayne Enterprises or some subsidiary. He was further displeased at the audience that assembled for the interrogation of his mother.
"Seriously?" he complained to Wally West, cowled and garbed as his alternate identity The Flash. "We have to have Plastic Man here?"
Wally shrugged, his blue eyes solemn as he looked at his childhood friend. "Her terrorist buddies are threatening to blow up a possible Justice League target. What did you think was going to happen?"
"I thought perhaps everyone might have the decency to perhaps trust one another, not show all up in one convenient location so we can all go kaboom together like a big spandex and Kevlar pinata!" Roy snapped a bit louder than he intended. The entire large room went dead quiet. "I understand most of you trust me less than you can throw me, but do you really think Superman, Wonder Woman and the friggin' Batman can't handle this without you? Maybe just this once?"
A few of the nosier people, such as Plastic Man, looked a bit shamefaced. "Roy," Black Canary began placating but Roy cut her off.
"No, I've about had it to here," he slashed above his head, "with everyone's suspicious looks, the noses in the air like your shit has never stank, and the assumption that my life is everyone's personal gossip fodder. If you aren't directly involved or invited, please get the hell out. If there is anything you need to know, I'm sure we will let you know. I'm not bringing her here so you people can stare at her like a three headed llama at sideshow."
Nightwing grinned at the reference, being a circus raised boy. Captain Atom, Zatanna and a few others bristled. "You don't get to make that decision, Harper," snapped Captain Atom belligerently.
"Actually, it being a personal *and* professional matter, it is my decision. I don't recall asking your opinion on anything in my entire life." Roy took an aggressive step forward. Nightwing, Donna Troy, the entire Arrowclan, Green Lantern, Supergirl, and anyone who'd ever been a Titan or Outsider moved behind him in an impressive show of backup.
Captain Atom paused when Batman stepped next to Roy and just stared at him. He looked for assistance from Wonder Woman and Superman but found both of them staring passively back. He'd picked this fight. It was up to him to either finish it or back down.
The gender-neutral tones of The Oracle sounded through the room. "I would have thought the fact that you had to hack into the email sent by Nightwing was enough information for you to realize you weren't invited, Captain Atom."
Green Arrow went purple with rage.Black Canary tensed in anticipation of wiping someone all over the floor while Green Lantern's ring spark as if readying to forcibly removing the uninvited costume set with a green cannon if needed.
"If the informant sees all of us here, she may balk at wanting to cooperate and then we're back where we started. Unless, of course, you're wanting to sanction aggressive interrogation techniques," Batman noted casually to Captain Atom.
Captain Atom snorted. "Fuck you, Bats," he replied wittily and stalked off, taking his own thin supporters with him.
"Wow," breathed Speedy, her blonde pony tail swinging as she looked around the room in awe. "That was intense!"
Roy laughed, suddenly relieved. "That's nothing. You should have seen the Titans conference room when Lian tried to practice her Pledge of Allegiance to us and 'Wing and Flasher here started arguing over the legality of "under God" in it." Speedy gaped at him while a few people gave relieved chuckles.
"I still say 'under God' is okay," muttered the Flash.
"Church and state," Nightwing rejoined teasingly, "separation of church and state."
"Enough," admonished Wonder Woman sternly. "Where is she, Roy?"
"I'm here, Your Highness." Everyone watches with interest as a woman in her early 50s stepped from a side room, face pale and eyes huge in her face. It was obvious she witnessed the showdown and was suitably intimidated.
Almost everyone noted that Roy had her easy movements, green eyes and fighting spirit. There was something about her, though, that raised Black Canary's hackles. She approached Aiofe ó Caoimh, who turned to face the Black Canary squarely. Both women sized each other up suspiciously.
"Dia Dhuit," greeted Aiofe, tilting her head in acknowledgement of the other woman.
"Excuse me?" Canary asked sharply.
"It means 'hello'. Can we all relax, please?" Roy sighed and rubbed his forehead as if a massive headache was forming. Nightwing reflected there probably was. "Aiofe, please speak English so those I trust don't decide to take something wrong and go ballistic."
Batman said something in rapid-fire Gaelic, which Aiofe returned, causing Roy to blink in surprise. They were speaking so fast he couldn't follow. After a few moments of this, Batman fell silent, gave her a brief nod and told everyone, "She'll be straight with us."
"You know that how?" asked Wonder Woman a bit skeptically.
"Because she just told me where to find the rest of her crew that she managed to contact on the way here and the last place she knew where the assembled devices were being kept." Batman's lips twisted in a grim smile. "You may think I'm an ass on occasion, Red Arrow, but credit me with more tact than Captain Atom."
"Oh, I always knew you were less of a pompous ass than him. That's never been in question," Roy assured Batman with a huge smile.
Nightwing rolled his eyes. "Okay, now that we've determined my mentor is less of an asshole than Captain Atom, can we move on?" There were a few titters when Batman shot Nightwing a scowl.
Aiofe cast an uncertain look at Roy, who gave her an encouraging nod. Superman courteously pulled the chair out for her, which she sat in. Roy suppressed a gleeful smirk at his mother's startled expression at the gentlemanly manners. No doubt she would be shocked to learn that the otherworldly Superman was raised a Kansas farmboy who's human mother would have twisted his ear for not treating a woman as a lady...until she proved herself otherwise.
After a few hesitant starts, Aiofe confessed everything: her childhood, the losses during the Irish troubles, her anger at the British and the Protestants Northern Irish, her entry into the IRA, Sinn Fein and later the even more radical Saorfaidh sibh Éire. She spoke of Roy's father, their relationship, how things went wrong, his and their son's sudden disappearance and the years she spent thinking they were dead and she had nothing to live for except her now misguided and defunct cause. The more she spoke, the more cathartic it seemed to become. Everyone noticed the confessions seemed to spill from her mouth almost against her will but the burden was now more than she could bear and the wound needed lacerating.
over an hour later, with very little interruption, she fell silent in mid-sentence about how she found the scientist working on the detonation devices. "I'm sorry," she said hoarsely, her throat raw from the talking. Her eyes were closed, as if she couldn't bear looking at anyone.
Everyone tensed and scanned the room. "For what?" asked Green Lantern abruptly.
"My mistakes, past and present." She stood up and began to pace the room in a nervous manner. It seemed out of character for a woman like her. Roy frowned. It *was* out of character, as much as such a mannerism would be for Cheshire.
He stood up so abruptly his chair skidded across the floor. "What did you do?" he demanded. "Dammit, Aiofe!"
"Oracle, get us-" Nightwing's speech was cut off as he and the rest of the assembled heroes disappeared. Everyone but Roy, Superman, Batman and Aiofe vanished in a shimmer of light, transported directly to the Watchtower.
Aiofe gave Roy a haunted look. "I am sorry," she repeated and gunfire erupted around them. Superman was a red and blue blur as he went after their attackers.
Roy felt the burn of a bullet graze his left shoulder as he dove for the floor, Batman right next to him. Aiofe was running but she didn't get far. Batman's face was inscrutable as the Batarang line shot from his hand almost on it's own, spiraled around her ankles and downed her hard to the old checker tile floor.
"Move," Batman ordered Roy tersely. Roy was on his feet and running low, weaving as he did so toward his mother. "Not the direction I meant," muttered Batman but knew he should have known better. Roy was predictable once you figured him out.
Roy reached his mother, who was trying and failing to unravel the line from her ankle. She was sawing at it with a blade. "Trust me when I say that's a futile effort," he remarked almost casually before he shoved his left fist into her jaw hard enough to knock her out. He wagged the hand very slightly as if to shake off the pain. "Damn, hard headed like me. I used the wrong arm too. Ow!"
"Good to know hard hardheadedness is genetic. Move!" Batman's voice was right behind him, low to the ground. "They might have rigged this place with explosives by now. Kal-El! We're gone now!"
"Why not blow the place sooner?" asked Roy, scooping his maddening dam over his shoulder.
"Superman didn't hear them approach. His senses didn't pick them up as they surrounded us. Obviously their technology has advanced beyond the explosives."
"Makes sense, where are we going?" Roy headed for an alcove that looked goon-free.
"Oracle-"
"Coordinates?"
"North Forty."
"I've snagged Big Blue already, so be careful," Oracle told them somberly.
Roy felt the transporter take effect. The office faded away and was replaced by a cozy front yard with a white pickett fence in a very nice neighborhood. He looked at his stone-faced companion. "You gotta be kiddin' me!"
Three hours after Superman, Steel, the SCU squad and eventually the FBI cleared out the Waynetech warehouse of bomb assembly equipment, Roy swung by his mother's rented apartment to find it spotlessly empty. He expected it but admitted to himself he was disappointed all the same. He joined his comrades in arms at the Justice League Watchtower, walking in to a packed conference room that went deathly silent at his arrival. He arched an eyebrow at Black Canary, who just shook her head.
Roy started to feel a little paranoid by the time he got to his seat, all those eyes boring into him, wondering, calculating...judging. He should be used to it, he thought almost resentfully. They judged him all the time.
"Well, we can always thank one of the Arrow clan in keeping our lives less than boring," quipped Booster Gold awkwardly. A few people shot Booster a dirty look and his half-cheerful grin slid away. Booster wasn't known for his sensitivity or tact, after all.
"Good work today, Red Arrow," began Superman but a few people made scoffing noises. "Is there a problem?"
"One got away," noted Captain Atom, easily the person who's stick up his ass was more rigid than the one up Batman's butt. "It should be noted that she is possibly Red Arrow's mother. That makes him immediately suspect."
"Why?" asked Nightwing hotly. "He's never met her before today!"
"He says. How do you know?" countered Captain Atom, with equal fervor. "Not all the equipment was confiscated. FBI reports that some of the bombs had already been assembled. Who knows where they are and he," Atom gestured at Roy angrily, "walked away from the one who most likely has the information about the entire operation!"
Nightwing bristled and opened his mouth to counter the argument but Roy laid an arm on Nightwing's shoulder, causing the other man to look at him in surprise. Roy shook his head. "He's entitled to be a suspicious asshole, so let him."
Captain Atom's eyes narrowed. "I beg your pardon?"
"You call me an accessory to a potential terrorist bombing, I can call you an asshole," Roy responded easily, but those who knew him well knew the cold green fire in his eyes did not bode well. Roy's temper ran as three types: immediate brief explosion easily forgotten five minutes later, slow burn that turned into a grudge held until Hell froze over, and an explosion so violent and terrible that it made Krakatoa's explosion in 1883 feel like a mild tremor. Captain Atom was pushing buttons that rarely, if ever, got pushed to the degree they were being pushed now.
"Drop it," Superman advised Captain Atom. He didn't know Roy well enough to know the look, but he recognized the immediate tension and unease in those who did. "Red Arrow is beyond suspect. We cannot choose blood but we can choose the rest." Captain Atom slanted Superman a mutinous look but did as he was bid. "In the meantime, Captain does bring up a valid point. Some bombs were obviously assembled. Batman and Nightwing are working on analyzing all the components for a rough idea of shape, dimensions and whatnot. I'm requesting we step up security at all League and member locations and I expect those here to advise those not here to keep their eyes peeled. We still don't know what the initial target was, though I think it's safe to say it may have been or still is The Hall of Justice."
Captain Atom muttered something only Superman could hear but Superman ignored him. There was a general shuffling about as the meeting adjourned. A few people gave encouraging or supportive smiles to Roy. Batman gave him a long, unreadable look but since Roy got those every day from Batman he ignored it. Wonder Woman embraced him, which startled him, as she wasn't normally demonstrative with him.
"If you need anything," she told him maternally, "you will let me know, of course." It was not a suggestion.
Roy gave her a weak smile. "Yes, ma'am." She patted his cheek and sauntered away. He looked in askance at Donna Troy, standing by Nightwing. She arched an inquisitive eyebrow at him and he shrugged. He turned away from his friends' piercing stare. He was starting to feel like a bug under a microscope.
Now he was under the most powerful magnifying lense on the planet. Batman stood right behind him, not crowding him, but close enough for Roy that his arm almost slammed into the taller man as he swung around. The two men eyed each other a moment before The Batman spoke. "I expect to be kept in the loop, Red Arrow," the older man said formally, "as anything you discover may help us determine further information regarding the devices and the target."
Roy tilted his head to one side. Batman's words, while perfunctorily delivered, was an unnecessary repetition of Superman earlier. Batman never repeated the obvious and an underlying current in his tone indicated something else: understanding. Roy suddenly felt ten feet tall and invincible. Despite his questionable track record, Batman was relaying that he knew Roy was doing the right thing and being true to himself. *And approved.* Roy knew he was right when Batman gave one sharp nod, turned with a sharp twist and swirl of his cowled cape and strode away.
When Batman paused to glare at Nightwing into following, the blue and black clad man laughed, shot his red-haired friend a mischievous wink and did as he was silently bid. Roy knew that despite the few rumblings during this meeting, Batman's approval would go a long way to quieting any doubters. He relaxed.
Green Arrow and Green Lantern watched the production before them with knowing eyes. They recognized exactly what Batman did and Oliver blessed the overbearing autocrat for it. Any defense that Oliver, Hal or Dinah could give would have been ignored or put down as favoritism or nepotism. Roy and Bruce's headbutting over various issues was common knowledge and even Nightwing's influence didn't bridge a lot of the sniping between the two wholly different men.
"This," Green Lantern announced to anyone within earshot, "is going to suck rotten eggs." Black Canary clamped down on a giggle, especially since she was thinking the exact same thing. "Roy is damned if does and damned if he doesn't."
Green Arrow scowled at the pronouncement and stalked over to Roy, who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room with Vixen prattling at him. "I need a beer and I need to buy you a beer," he informed his surrogate son. Roy looked startled at the interruption but vixen didn't bat an eyelash.
"Let me know if you need back up, Roy," she said airily and sauntered away with a swish of her shapely hips that left both archers admiring.
"She's gotta be a wildcat in the sack," Ollie murmured and Roy sputtered on a laugh.
"You are incorrigible, old man," he told his mentor. "You said you were buyin'? About damned time."
* * *
It took Aiofe three days to lose the FBI. As soon as Roy left her apartment she packed her things and left. She was compromised, staying there would avail her nothing. Six hours later, word came through that the assembly location had been raided by the Justice League, Metropolis Police and the FBI. She was thankful that six bombs got made. Six was more than enough, Her problem now was what was she going to do? Half her team was in custody, the other half on the run like herself. With no safehouse, no rock safe enough to crawl under and no allies, Aiofe was sorely tempted to take her son up on his offer but she couldn't. That would mean admitting defeat and she would never do that.
It would be admitting her life's work was done for nothing, that she was a failure. That thought alone got her ire up.
She got out of Metropolis by the skin of her teeth, tooling down a rather crummy state highway to a small airstrip where she rented a two seater plane. Once in the air, she amended her flight plan from Atlanta, Georgia to St. Louis, Missouri. From there she filled up the tank and set off once more to Denver, Colorado, repeating the pattern all the way to Star City. She didn't think about the whys and wherefores. Something within her urged her to go, so she did.
As she flew the blue skies over the Midwest, the Great Rocky Mountains and onto the West coast, her thoughts turned to two subjects: the son she thought she lost forever and the fate of the only man she'd ever loved. Roy's occupation and the scant background she had on his former identity as the sidekick "Speedy" meant that Liam was dead. How, she did not know, nor when. Somewhere on this huge continent his body lay interred, hopefully with the blessing of the Holy Church. Their son was an intriguing mix of both Aiofe and Liam but also his life without them.
His build, his body shape, his face, even the color of his hair and the tone of his skin was William Harper Senior. His eyes, his manner and apparently his fighting spirit was all his mother. There was something else, though, an otherworldliness about him. He mentioned that he was raised by the Navajo in the southwest. Her knowledge of native tribes in America was scant and mostly from John Wayne movies. Aioife was fairly certain they were inaccurate. She resolved to find a used book shop and see if there was anything useful there.
Her thought drifted away from Roy specified to her grandchild. Aiofe couldn't repress a smile. Was the child a boy or a girl? She hoped it was a girl but wouldn't quibble either way. She'd always wanted a baby girl. She had not been disappointed with a boy when Roy was born but she never got further chances for motherhood. A serious run-in with an unknown fever in backwater Africa ended any possibilities of more children. Was that why she was going to Star City? To find the family she'd long since given up on?
Aiofe shook herself from her melancholy reverie. Now was not the time for foolishness. Everything she believed in since a teenager was at stake. She could not fail...and yet...would it really be that bad?
* * *
Roy stood outside his grey SUV, shaded glasses killing the glare from the bright sun as he waited on his daughter to come running out from school. It was early fall, early enough that the leaves hadn't turned but late enough to need a jacket when it approached dusk. Lian was adjusting somewhat to her new school but she didn't like it, he knew. He didn't know what to do about it.
The bell rang and the screams and shouts of children rent the air like gulls over a garbage heap. Soon a steady tide of children of all ages came scampering out the huge front doors, backpacks swinging and legs pumping like they were two legged gazelles. He remembered that feeling. "Get out," he whispered to himself melodramatically, "get out while you can! Or you'll never leave!"
His smiles and polite nods to various parents who came to pick up their offspring around him turned into a genuine grin of delight as his mischeivous angel exited the building. Her eyes were alight with excitement as she ran toward him. She was waving a large peice of paper with multiple glued items on it but he couldn't tell what exactly it was.
"Look, Daddy!" she shouted at him as she drew nearer.
"Whatcha got there, princess?" Roy asked in amusement, already resigned to framing another work of art for their hallway. Currently, Lian fancied herself a budding artist and Oliver began framing her artwork from school as if they were Rembrandts or Monets.
She thrust the sheet at him, beaming proudly while he made the prerequisite oohs and aahs over the rather crooked cutout scarecrow surrounded by crayon-drawn crows in a field of glued on popcorn kernels as wheat. It was kinda cute, he thought in amusement, and at least he could recognize what it was. The last peice looked like something Picasso would have done, complete with an accidental extra eye.
"Wow! Just in time for harvest!" he enthused and Lian's smile brightened even more. "Let's go get something to eat. You hungry?"
"Hamburger!" she said enthusiastically.
"I was thinking Greek," he told her.
"Gyro!" she amended with equal enthusiasm.
"She's beautiful, mac." The voice was soft and came from the other end of the vehicle.
Roy reacted immediately, snatching Lian into his arms and putting her into the car fast enough that people blinked and missed it. He faced the exhausted woman who was watching him with sad green eyes so like his own. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Stay in the car," he told his daughter when she made to open the door again.
"I don't know," shrugged Aiofe. She made no movement toward him or his daughter but Roy didn't relax. "I flew here."
"How'd you get on a plane?" Roy snapped. "They've got all the terminals watched."
She gave a short laugh. "I flew the plane, mac, I didn't board as a passenger." Roy gaped at her a moment and then scowled. "Once I got in the air I amended my flight plan. I had to see you again, see my grand-" Her voice choked. "Granddaughter. You never said what gender. I've been consumed with needin' to know." Her brogue grew pronounced as emotion overtook her. "I lost so much, you've no idea how much." Aiofe's eyes turned to Lian, who was staring at her in wary bemusement through the slightly tinted windows of the SUV. "She is very beautiful. She'll break hearts, she will."
"Like her mother," Roy growled, "but I'll be damned if she turns out like her mother or her grandmother."
"Or her father?" Aiofe steeled herself for the backlash.
"Or her father," Roy conceded. "God knows, my track record sucks in the women department. Apparently it's something else I have in common with my father." Aiofe flinched. "Why are you here?"
"I wasn't goin' to hurt you or her, I swear it," she said fervently but Roy interrupted her.
"Maybe not but any of your cronies could have traced you right to me," Roy told her grimly. "My daughter is in enough danger just by being the child of her parents without you throwing in more fuel for the fire."
Aiofe gave him a long look, stung by the continued rejection. "Do ye give her mother the same guff, mac, that yer givin' me?" Roy's scowl turned thunderous and she knew she'd struck a nerve. "I know yer feelin' betrayed. I am too. I thought ye were dead. Whoever yer father worked with planned yer disappearances well." She hesitated. "I had no intention of giving up but-" She hesitated. Roy lifted an eyebrow. "I don't want to talk about it here. I heard ye sayin' to L-Lian," she stumbled over the name, "that ye were goin' for food. Can I attach myself to ye?"
Roy frowned as he studied her. She seemed sincere. More than that, she seemed lost. Wondering if this was another rash impulse he was going to regret Roy reluctantly nodded. "Did you drive?"
She hesitated again and Roy realized she had...in a stolen vehicle most likely. He sighed heavily and motioned to the car. "Get in. Lian, get in the back seat," he told his daughter through the window. Lian scrambled obligingly. Roy could see the fire of curiosity in her wily gaze. His daughter missed nothing and was clever as a fox.
Sure enough, the adults were buckled up and pulling away from the school when Lian chimed with perfect innocence, "Are you my Daddy's momma?"
Aiofe slanted a look at Roy, but he made no outward sign. She turned around and smiled tentatively at the child, who was now digging in her backpack for something. "Yes, I am. When he was a baby, I always called him Sweet William."
"Like the flower?" Lian asked, still digging.
Aiofe drank in the sight of her granddaughter. She had Asian features, brown eyes, black hair long enough for a pony tail but her skin tone was a bit lighter than traditional Asian. She also had a buoyant personality and a sparkle to her eyes that was obviously from her father. Aiofe marveled for a moment longer and turned back to face forward. She caught her son sneaking a sideways glance at her.
"Speak." His tone was brusque.
"Daddy, be nice," admonished Lian idly. Roy scowled but said nothing in return, which made Aiofe smile to herself.
"I'm havin' a change of heart. I hadn't planned on one. Flew here intent on not doin' it, actually," she explained, suppressing her twinge of guilt. "But the more I thought about you and my grandchild-"
"Granddaughter," Lian corrected.
"I didn't know that, garinion," Aiofe told her, turning around again. She was confronted by a large sheet of brown paper folded in half. "What's this?" she asked amused.
"A present for you. I drawded it for you today in school." Lian was extremely matter-of-fact about the gift, handing it over as if it were a priceless treasure she'd spent days creating for just this occasion.
"I don't know that word," Roy said quietly. He watched both his mother and the road as the woman in his passenger seat slowly opened the drawing of a man and a little girl standing by a log cabin awash in the colors he and she adored about their Arizona getaway. Next to the house were two new features Roy had never seen before in other drawings of their log cabin home. A woman with brown hair and a tombstone with the initials WRH on it.
Aiofe was staring at it. She turned it a bit to see better and Roy saw on the other side of him and Lian's figures Lian's usual representation of Cheshire, her mother, Jade Nguyen. "That's our family," Lian was explaining. "All of us. Mommy, Daddy, me, you and Grandpa Will."
Roy was a little surprised to see tears welling in the woman's eyes. "He's dead then?"
"Did you imagine he abandoned me?"
"The word means 'granddaughter'," Aiofe said instead, not even blinking back the tears. She let them slide down her cheeks. It was the saddest drawing of a family she'd ever seen but at least Lian had a family to draw. Aiofe never had that much. She focused on her son's words. "No, I know he would never have abandoned you. How-"
"Technically I guess you could say he did abandon me." Roy turned into the parking lot of he and Lian's favorite Greek takeout restaurant. "He left me sitting on a blanket at the edge of a forest that was on fire. In his defense, the fire was a long way off, but he was the one who knew the terrain where it was spreading the best, so he was called in to help some trapped hikers. He left me with some teens who reported the hikers in the vicinity."
"He was a firefighter then?" Aiofe asked, wiping away her tears.
"No." Roy shook his head. "He was a park ranger. A damned good one, from what everyone told me. He knew every rock, every tree, every shrub and was probably the only park ranger in the area trusted by most of the native tribes."
"Ye mentioned the Navajo?"
"we're Dine!" Lian exclaimed. "Bitterwater clan because of Brave Bow."
Aiofe turned an questioning look upon her son, who was uncomfortable with the line of inquiry. "A man named Raymond Begay was given custody of me because my father lost his life saving members of his clan. The Navajo take their debts and obligations very seriously. He raised me as he would his own grandson, since he was old enough to have been my grandfather." Roy's mind drifted a bit in the memories. "But he was old and in ill health, so eventually he found me a new guardian."
"Oliver Queen."
"Gran'pa Ollie," Lian corrected absently. "Gyros, Daddy. I'm hungry."
"We better feed the monster or she'll turn into a T-Rex," Roy teased as he swung the door to the car open. He ignored his daughter's protests that she'd rather be a triceratops as he watched his mother carefully fold the drawing up and tuck it into a belt purse at her waist. "You comin'?" he asked.
Aiofe looked up, startled.
"I'm buyin'. They got the best hummus in Star City."
Aiofe's face creased in a tentative smile of pleasure and she daintily exited the SUV. Lian shoved her hands in each of the adults and chattered at them in rapid fire speech as they entered the restaurant. For the first time in her adult life, Aiofe knew what it was to be accepted just as you were.
Lian made a mess out of her Gyro as Roy expected. She had the sauce all over her face and bits of herb in her teeth. Lian was having a great time, however, telling her life story to Grandma Aiofe. With the agility of a child used to speaking languages other than English, Lian had no issues pronouncing Aiofe's name in 'proper Irish', as Aiofe primly told her. Lian giggled for a five minutes over the fact that her daddy was called "mac", teasing him that he was like the boy at school named Mac.
Aiofe for her part marveled at the difference between the hard-bitten 'soldier of fortune' she met in Metropolis and the patient single father who wiped his daughter's face with a napkin dampened by the sweat on his water glass. They talked of desultory matters in public, not wanting to alarm anyone. Once back in the car, however, Roy admonished Lian to be quiet while he and his mother talked 'business'.
"So, what are you wanting? A deal?" Roy drove aimlessly, turning in random patterns, occasionally looking in the rear view mirror for possible tails from a lifetime of training.
"Somewhat," she hedged. "I hadn't thought it through, to be truthful."
"What are you willing to tell us?" Roy frowned when a red sports car swerved by them with some rowdy teenage girls screeching cheerfully at them from inside. "I can't guarantee what Interpol will do."
"I know." Aiofe sighed heavily, guiltily. "I want a chance, Roy, 'tis all I ask for. More than I deserve. It still sets wrong with me what I'm doin' here with ye but dammit," she paused and gave Lian a guilty look but the girl wasn't paying them any mind now. She was frowning over some papers with math problems on them. "The more I thought about you and the thought of what you were, had become without me, the worse I felt, the more lost I felt. I've no ties in this world except you and I'm loathe to just chuck it all out a window." She stared out the window morosely. "I'm not old to be this stubborn as of yet."
To her surprise, he started laughing. "Can you please tell that to Ollie?" Roy wheezed. "He seems to be under this impression stubborn and stupid is required by law the older you get."
Aiofe smiled sadly. "Perhaps for those that have nothing to lose. I however, find I finally have something to lose and don't want to lose it anymore. Once was enough."
Roy considered her words and her tone. She sounded sincere but he wasn't always the best judge of character. "I want you to meet some people. I'm not known as the most level-headed guy. I'm a bit too emotional for some people's peace of mind."
"I'll meet whoever you want, mac, just give me a chance."
Aiofe sounded sincere enough that Roy nodded. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Hey, short pants, you'll never guess who came to dinner."
* * *
They met in Gotham city at Batman's insistence, in costume which made Roy sigh heavily but he made no further comments. The location was an old office building that Roy was fairly certain belonged to Wayne Enterprises or some subsidiary. He was further displeased at the audience that assembled for the interrogation of his mother.
"Seriously?" he complained to Wally West, cowled and garbed as his alternate identity The Flash. "We have to have Plastic Man here?"
Wally shrugged, his blue eyes solemn as he looked at his childhood friend. "Her terrorist buddies are threatening to blow up a possible Justice League target. What did you think was going to happen?"
"I thought perhaps everyone might have the decency to perhaps trust one another, not show all up in one convenient location so we can all go kaboom together like a big spandex and Kevlar pinata!" Roy snapped a bit louder than he intended. The entire large room went dead quiet. "I understand most of you trust me less than you can throw me, but do you really think Superman, Wonder Woman and the friggin' Batman can't handle this without you? Maybe just this once?"
A few of the nosier people, such as Plastic Man, looked a bit shamefaced. "Roy," Black Canary began placating but Roy cut her off.
"No, I've about had it to here," he slashed above his head, "with everyone's suspicious looks, the noses in the air like your shit has never stank, and the assumption that my life is everyone's personal gossip fodder. If you aren't directly involved or invited, please get the hell out. If there is anything you need to know, I'm sure we will let you know. I'm not bringing her here so you people can stare at her like a three headed llama at sideshow."
Nightwing grinned at the reference, being a circus raised boy. Captain Atom, Zatanna and a few others bristled. "You don't get to make that decision, Harper," snapped Captain Atom belligerently.
"Actually, it being a personal *and* professional matter, it is my decision. I don't recall asking your opinion on anything in my entire life." Roy took an aggressive step forward. Nightwing, Donna Troy, the entire Arrowclan, Green Lantern, Supergirl, and anyone who'd ever been a Titan or Outsider moved behind him in an impressive show of backup.
Captain Atom paused when Batman stepped next to Roy and just stared at him. He looked for assistance from Wonder Woman and Superman but found both of them staring passively back. He'd picked this fight. It was up to him to either finish it or back down.
The gender-neutral tones of The Oracle sounded through the room. "I would have thought the fact that you had to hack into the email sent by Nightwing was enough information for you to realize you weren't invited, Captain Atom."
Green Arrow went purple with rage.Black Canary tensed in anticipation of wiping someone all over the floor while Green Lantern's ring spark as if readying to forcibly removing the uninvited costume set with a green cannon if needed.
"If the informant sees all of us here, she may balk at wanting to cooperate and then we're back where we started. Unless, of course, you're wanting to sanction aggressive interrogation techniques," Batman noted casually to Captain Atom.
Captain Atom snorted. "Fuck you, Bats," he replied wittily and stalked off, taking his own thin supporters with him.
"Wow," breathed Speedy, her blonde pony tail swinging as she looked around the room in awe. "That was intense!"
Roy laughed, suddenly relieved. "That's nothing. You should have seen the Titans conference room when Lian tried to practice her Pledge of Allegiance to us and 'Wing and Flasher here started arguing over the legality of "under God" in it." Speedy gaped at him while a few people gave relieved chuckles.
"I still say 'under God' is okay," muttered the Flash.
"Church and state," Nightwing rejoined teasingly, "separation of church and state."
"Enough," admonished Wonder Woman sternly. "Where is she, Roy?"
"I'm here, Your Highness." Everyone watches with interest as a woman in her early 50s stepped from a side room, face pale and eyes huge in her face. It was obvious she witnessed the showdown and was suitably intimidated.
Almost everyone noted that Roy had her easy movements, green eyes and fighting spirit. There was something about her, though, that raised Black Canary's hackles. She approached Aiofe ó Caoimh, who turned to face the Black Canary squarely. Both women sized each other up suspiciously.
"Dia Dhuit," greeted Aiofe, tilting her head in acknowledgement of the other woman.
"Excuse me?" Canary asked sharply.
"It means 'hello'. Can we all relax, please?" Roy sighed and rubbed his forehead as if a massive headache was forming. Nightwing reflected there probably was. "Aiofe, please speak English so those I trust don't decide to take something wrong and go ballistic."
Batman said something in rapid-fire Gaelic, which Aiofe returned, causing Roy to blink in surprise. They were speaking so fast he couldn't follow. After a few moments of this, Batman fell silent, gave her a brief nod and told everyone, "She'll be straight with us."
"You know that how?" asked Wonder Woman a bit skeptically.
"Because she just told me where to find the rest of her crew that she managed to contact on the way here and the last place she knew where the assembled devices were being kept." Batman's lips twisted in a grim smile. "You may think I'm an ass on occasion, Red Arrow, but credit me with more tact than Captain Atom."
"Oh, I always knew you were less of a pompous ass than him. That's never been in question," Roy assured Batman with a huge smile.
Nightwing rolled his eyes. "Okay, now that we've determined my mentor is less of an asshole than Captain Atom, can we move on?" There were a few titters when Batman shot Nightwing a scowl.
Aiofe cast an uncertain look at Roy, who gave her an encouraging nod. Superman courteously pulled the chair out for her, which she sat in. Roy suppressed a gleeful smirk at his mother's startled expression at the gentlemanly manners. No doubt she would be shocked to learn that the otherworldly Superman was raised a Kansas farmboy who's human mother would have twisted his ear for not treating a woman as a lady...until she proved herself otherwise.
After a few hesitant starts, Aiofe confessed everything: her childhood, the losses during the Irish troubles, her anger at the British and the Protestants Northern Irish, her entry into the IRA, Sinn Fein and later the even more radical Saorfaidh sibh Éire. She spoke of Roy's father, their relationship, how things went wrong, his and their son's sudden disappearance and the years she spent thinking they were dead and she had nothing to live for except her now misguided and defunct cause. The more she spoke, the more cathartic it seemed to become. Everyone noticed the confessions seemed to spill from her mouth almost against her will but the burden was now more than she could bear and the wound needed lacerating.
over an hour later, with very little interruption, she fell silent in mid-sentence about how she found the scientist working on the detonation devices. "I'm sorry," she said hoarsely, her throat raw from the talking. Her eyes were closed, as if she couldn't bear looking at anyone.
Everyone tensed and scanned the room. "For what?" asked Green Lantern abruptly.
"My mistakes, past and present." She stood up and began to pace the room in a nervous manner. It seemed out of character for a woman like her. Roy frowned. It *was* out of character, as much as such a mannerism would be for Cheshire.
He stood up so abruptly his chair skidded across the floor. "What did you do?" he demanded. "Dammit, Aiofe!"
"Oracle, get us-" Nightwing's speech was cut off as he and the rest of the assembled heroes disappeared. Everyone but Roy, Superman, Batman and Aiofe vanished in a shimmer of light, transported directly to the Watchtower.
Aiofe gave Roy a haunted look. "I am sorry," she repeated and gunfire erupted around them. Superman was a red and blue blur as he went after their attackers.
Roy felt the burn of a bullet graze his left shoulder as he dove for the floor, Batman right next to him. Aiofe was running but she didn't get far. Batman's face was inscrutable as the Batarang line shot from his hand almost on it's own, spiraled around her ankles and downed her hard to the old checker tile floor.
"Move," Batman ordered Roy tersely. Roy was on his feet and running low, weaving as he did so toward his mother. "Not the direction I meant," muttered Batman but knew he should have known better. Roy was predictable once you figured him out.
Roy reached his mother, who was trying and failing to unravel the line from her ankle. She was sawing at it with a blade. "Trust me when I say that's a futile effort," he remarked almost casually before he shoved his left fist into her jaw hard enough to knock her out. He wagged the hand very slightly as if to shake off the pain. "Damn, hard headed like me. I used the wrong arm too. Ow!"
"Good to know hard hardheadedness is genetic. Move!" Batman's voice was right behind him, low to the ground. "They might have rigged this place with explosives by now. Kal-El! We're gone now!"
"Why not blow the place sooner?" asked Roy, scooping his maddening dam over his shoulder.
"Superman didn't hear them approach. His senses didn't pick them up as they surrounded us. Obviously their technology has advanced beyond the explosives."
"Makes sense, where are we going?" Roy headed for an alcove that looked goon-free.
"Oracle-"
"Coordinates?"
"North Forty."
"I've snagged Big Blue already, so be careful," Oracle told them somberly.
Roy felt the transporter take effect. The office faded away and was replaced by a cozy front yard with a white pickett fence in a very nice neighborhood. He looked at his stone-faced companion. "You gotta be kiddin' me!"