Grew up with Green. To love Aqua. (A YJ fanfic/ Kaldur: Aqualad Love story.)

Rememberance and Retaliation.

~Litchfield County, NJ. 20:08, August 3rd ~

The set up at the rendezvous point was a bit more obvious than what our mission entailed. Six cargo trucks idled with their lights in the front illuminating the road ahead as the sun gave away to nights covered darkness. The location was in a small field patch off to the side of the main highway that lead both to the Boston and Manhattan Star Labs where the Andriod was being sent to be studied. Like Batman had said, only two of them were real while the other four were just decoys.

Half of the Leaguers that had fought against the machine had stayed behind to play sentinel till we came. Which, because of the need for a disguise, meant we each had shown up on a motorcycle given to us. No doubt purchased secretly by Wayne Industries.

Megan and Aqualad shared the same blue color on their bikes along with full body black suits with a strip of matching color from their bikes going down their shoulder to their wrists and down their armpits to their ankles. The same went for Superboy and Robin aside from the fact that they were in red. But then there was myself and wally who donned singularly different colors. His, of course, yellow while mine was a light purple.

Superman, Batman, Flash, and Captain Atom were there to overview the loading of the android. They stood in the middle of it all while we waited, hidden in the bush of the shrubs and trees nearby. While we merely observed from the sidelines, I was surprised by the fact that through the tiniest opening, I kept seeing Superman steal glances to where the rest of the team was. His eyes squinted the way they normally do when he was using his X-ray vision. And when I saw in my peripheral vision that S.B had turned to meet his look but Superman instantly turned away did I get my confirmation that something did happen earlier in Metropolis.

My gaze upon the mini-kryptonian turned to sympathy along with my lower lips slightly dropping in sadness for him. In a single blink, I looked back at the original 'Super'.

I wondered why Clark would act this way. He was always one to offer his help to any who would ask. But now, as he quite literally had his own flesh and blood looking for his approval and attention, and he treated Superboy like he was an alien. S.B didnt deserve that, he didnt choose how his life would be created for or by what species. So, in my desperate attempt to help both my mentor and my friend, I mind-linked with Big Blue himself and spoke internally with a hint of beg to it. "You cant ignore him forever, Clark, he is part of you."

In a spit second, I saw his eyes turn back to me in a reprimanding glare before continuing to walk away. "Stay out of it, Astral."

"Why?!" I snapped back, sending a small mental kick to it as well. The movement in his step flinched for a moment at it. "You once told me when you were growing up on earth that you always wished there was someone else out there who could understand what was happening with you. To explain and teach you about your powers. Luckily, you have Martha and John instead. But superboy-"

"Astral, that is enough!" I bit my inner bottom lip while my eyes closed and turned away from him. He had never yelled at me like that ever before and I couldnt show that it actually had hurt to hear this anger from his tone. But the ironic part of it, was that it actually did remind me of Superboy. Just another thing to prove my point.

"Thats the signal, lets head out." Aqualad asserted. Everyone obeyed and got themselves ready for the ride ahead.

Strapping on my helmet and revving up my bike, I pulled ahead first in front of my group which consisted of Robin and S.B.

When we were assigned to our teams, I wanted to ask The Bat why he had positioned two of our teams biggest heavy hitters (myself and S.B) on one squad but decided against it.