[i]“This whole building is just a pit stop, to catch Zeta Beam teleports to the real HQ, an orbiting satellite; called the Watchtower.”[/i]

At that moment, Garth could feel his heart shatter in his body.

Garth felt something caught in his throat, they were lied too like this?! He couldn’t help but look down at the marbled floor. Trying to make sense of what he heard, or how none of their mentored even tried to deny it. His arms wrapped around his stomach. It wasn’t the fact that they didn’t get full access to the station, Garth had a feeling going in that would be the case. It was the fact they couldn’t even get full access to the ‘fake’ station. 

Garth’s hands instinctively wrapped around his waist, he felt like he was going to be sick. Finally he felt a hand pat him on the shoulder, it was Aquaman, kneeling over. “I’m sorry Garth, I tried to convince them to give you at least full access.” Aquaman quietly told him, as Garth groaned. “Just, you couldn’t even…” Garth couldn’t wrap his head around what he was finding out. “You lied to me father, I never thought you even had it in you…” Garth told his mentor. “I thought I was finally at the pinnacle, you couldn’t even tell me I was on some measly stepladder to the pinnacle…” Aquaman couldn’t respond, clearly he didn’t know what to say. Quietly he just wrapped his arms around Garth’s cold shoulders. “We’ll talk about it later Garth, but I tried. I really did.” He told his adopted son, leaving him to stew as he tried to help keep Ollie and Clint from killing one another.