The area was dead silent as Rory started down Tim with a steely glare. "I'm going and that's final." she snapped.

"No you aren't, I already almost lost you once tonight. I am not risking your life again," he answered, his gaze just as hard as hers. 

"That's not your decision to make Tim! It's like my life and I get to chose if I risk it or not, isn't that the point of this job? Risking our lives to protect the innocent?" she cried, looking at him.

"Yes, it is your choice Rory but you have no suit and no weapons. I am not stupid enough to let you come along because then I might actually lose you!" he pleaded.

Tim was angry, how could she not see that he was trying to protect her? He hated the idea of leaving her behind, but he knew that she would be safe in the cave if she stayed there. There was no way she could protect herself, her bow was gone and so were her arrows. 

"You won't lose me, Tim! I can take care of myself!" she yelled back, her own anger flaring. Rory knew he was worried about her, but there was no reason to. She always took care of herself, and she wasn't going to stop now.

"You don't know that!" he yelled. "Damn it, Rory, why can't you let me protect you for once? Is it so bad that I want to keep you safe?!" 

Rory's eyes widened as she looked stunned, Tim had never raised his voice at her before. She knew that she was pressing buttons, but if she wasn't there then who would make sure that he came back to her? They made a promise to protect each other, and she was not going to break it. Not now, and not ever.

It was a few moments before she spoke again, this time her voice was softer. "I know you want to keep me safe, don't you think that's all I want for you? I'm not perfect, far from it, but if I'm not there who is going to make sure you don't do something stupid and I lose you?" she asked.

Tim let out a sigh, "I love you Rory, but you are in no condition to go back out. Don't think I didn't notice your back was still hurting. Without your suit and bow, I would be too worried about you and I can't take that risk." He took her hand and held it tightly in how own. "I will fight to my dying breath if it meant that you stayed safe and out of harm's way."

Rory stepped closer and pressed her lips to his. "Let me help you, please?" she begged.

He held her waist and kissed her cheek. "I'm sorry Songbird, but you're not going." Tim looked at Roy and gave him a nod. "Take her home."

Before she could protest, Roy had wrapped his arms around Rory and drug her to his bike as she thrashed in his arms. "Rory Harper, let me go now!" she yelled. he tightened his grip on her and pulled her onto the bike and took off while she screamed for him to take her back.

It didn't matter that they were out of sight, Rory still screamed. "Take me back now!" she cried. tears fell from her eyes as she tried to convince her friend to take her back. Tim and the others needed her, she knew they did but he was so stubborn that he wasn't going to let her fight.

Roy kept his hold on her tight, hoping that she didn't try something crazy and crash the bike so she could make a break for it and run back. The entrance to the cave came into view after a few minutes, Rory had stopped yelling and was crying silently. Even when they pulled into the cave, she just sat there with a defeated look on her face.

He stood there and watched her cry before he pulled her off and sat her on a chair. "What the hell is wrong with you Twinkle Toes?" he asked.

Rory sniffed and looked up at him. "What the fuck are you talking about Roy?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"I mean, all the risks you have been taking. If you even thought clearly, you would see that he was right. You are in no condition to fight, but what I want to know is why are you crying about it?" he crossed his arms.

She looked taken aback, since when was Roy an asshole to her? "Why am I crying? Because Tim is out there, and he is even more reckless than I am. If he isn't careful then he will get himself killed." she sniffed.

"That's never stopped you before, in fact, nothing would stop you. So, what's stopping you now?" he asked, looking down at her.

Rory was even more confused, Roy looked angry with her but about what? "Why are you mad at me?" 

"Because you're being selfish. Crying because he sent you home? Rory, you have snuck out of the manor before so what is stopping you from doing it now?" he snapped.

"I-I don't know..." she stuttered, worried about his sudden change in behavior.

"You don't know? Yes, you do, you just don't want to admit it, Rory. Just say it and we can all go on with our lives." he yelled.

"Roy, don't," she warned.

"You're weak," he snapped.

"Stop it." 

"You're not good enough," he continued, his gaze hard and cold.

"Roy, I'm warning you." she pleaded.

"And one day Tim is going to wake up and realize you aren't who he thought you were and leave." 

Rory stood up from her seat and punched Roy in the face, blood spurting from his nose. A hard look was on her face as she punched him one more time, Roy falling onto the floor while he held his nose that was broken again. 

"Don't you ever speak to me like that again. I'm not weak, I am good enough and Tim won't leave me," she growled. "I'm scared that something bad will happen Roy, and that I won't be there to stop it."

Roy looked up at her, "So what the hell is stopping you?" 

She stopped in her tracks and stared at him. Roy was right, what was stopping her? Nothing was actually holding her back, it had always been herself that was holding her back. Since when did Aurora Queen listen to directions given to her by anyone? She had beaten death multiple times, survived the Joker, Killer Croc, and Deathstroke, and even took down a french drug ring. 

Aurora Queen was a fighter and nothing was going to stand in her way. 

Looking down she saw that Roy had a grin on his face, he wanted to piss her off. He above all people knew that she was stubborn as fuck and needed to be hit on the head in order to see sense. She reached down and helped him up. "You're right Roy. Nothing is stopping me." 

"Glad to hear that, and it's a good thing I brought back what I promised." 

He walked over and pulled out two briefcases from the back of his own bike and set them on the table. Rory pressed her thumb to the print scanner to the first one and saw that it was a brand new bow, refitted to her liking, and a quiver with even more kinds of arrows that she could use. 

"Roy, this is beautiful. But I still don't have a suit," she said. 

"Open the second one."

She gave him a skeptical look as she opened the second, her eyes widening at what was on the inside of it. Her fingers traced over the designs of the suit, the gold accents standing out from the solid coloring. Picking it up, the fabric was light; lighter than her last suit and it seemed more flexible than before.

Looking at Roy, she set it down softly. "Roy, I can't accept this. I'm not ready." 

"You said so yourself Twinkle Toes, nothing is stopping you. Oliver, Dinah, and I all think you're ready. Even Jesse had said that you were ready for this, he had gotten to see the designs before he died and agreed." 

Hearing that Jesse thought she was ready, made her heart swell, he had always thought she was meant for bigger things. So maybe this was her chance to prove him and the others right. She was ready for this and more, and no one was going to stand in her way. Closing the case, she picked it up and kissed Roy's cheek before she ran to go change. 

Gotham City needed her, and so did her boyfriend.

*****

"Weren't you a little harsh on her?" Spoiler asked as they got on their bikes. 

"I need to keep her safe, and that's with Roy at the Manor," he answered. Looking around, he watched as Bruce and Damian climbed into the Batmobile and Red Hood, Spoiler, and himself were ready to go with Superboy hovering above them. "She'll forgive me for this, but I won't forgive myself if she got hurt when I knew I could prevent it." 

Without another word, they all took off into the night towards City hall. They pushed the speed limits, with Ivy in the middle of the city, and holding that serum there was no telling what damage she could cause. 

Pulling into the city, they saw that the area around City Hall was being evacuated and the Bat-signal was high in the sky. Parking about half a mile away, they all took to the rooftops and ran the rest of the way. 

According to the news, Ivy had not only Two-Face and Penguin under her control but Mister Freeze and Clayface. This was going to cause a problem, it had been a while since there were so many in one place and two of them were mob bosses with plenty of men at their disposal. Once they were close enough, they saw that City Hall was encased in a wall of ice courtesy of Mister Freeze with Two-Face and Penguin keeping guard. Clayface and Harley must be inside with Ivy as she set up the serum to be airborne.

"We have to take out Two-Face, Penguin, and Mister Freeze if we even want to get close to Ivy. That's not counting Harley and Clayface inside with her." Red Hood said. 

"So do we focus all of our efforts into stopping them or what?" Spoiler asked. 

"We are really low in our ranks, even if we didn't sideline Arrow we would still be short," Superboy said.

"Good thing I called in some reinforcements," Oracle said.

No sooner did she speak, several figures landed next to them. Red Robin let out a huff as he saw his brother there with Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Superman himself. "Nice to see you Nightwing." he chuckled.

"Good to see you too babybird, I leave town for a week and everything goes to hell?" he asked looking at Batman.

"I had this under control," he said.

"Sure you did big guy." Nightwing patted Batman's shoulder and stood next to Red Hood. "Oracle called us all, well Supes intercepted and decided to drop in. Figured he could help with Orphan and Batwoman in England still." 

"Where's Grey Arrow?" Black Canary asked. 

"She's safe back at the cave, I had Arsenal take her back. Her suit and bow got ruined." Red Robin explained.

"But she's okay?" Green Arrow asked.

Red Robin gave him a nod. "Yeah, she's okay." 

"Well, the male population won't be if we don't figure out how to stop Ivy." Red Hood spoke up.

"We need to get through that wall of ice," Batman said as he looked around. "Superman's heat vision could work, but it would be too slow. This is time-sensitive and we need to work fast." 

"So why don't we distract while Superman and Superboy melt the ice so we can get in at least?" Spoiler spoke up.

There was a hum of agreement and laughter as they all dove off the roof, leaving Superman and Superboy to find an empty place to melt. Their feet hit the ground and took out several men before the others began to shoot at them.

They split up into groups and fought off Two-Face, Penguin, and their men. Black Canary fought with Green Arrow while Nightwing and Red Hood fought, leaving Red Robin with Spoiler and Batman with Robin. 

It seemed that they had a constant supply of lackeys, the vigilantes were getting overwhelmed and fast as they were pushed back into a corner to defend themselves. If help didn't come and soon, they would be in trouble.

Green Arrow looked at Black Canary in silent hopes that Roy did what they had asked him to, it was their only chance of getting out of this.

All of a sudden, something shot from the shy and landed in the large glacier of ice blowing it up as it rained down on the men below effectively burying them in the snow and ice. The thugs all looked up and began firing above them at something that was running across the roofs to not get shot. 

Red Robin squinted his eyes to try and see what it was, but all he could see was a flash of white before the area around them began to blow up. Four more explosions had gone off before a figure jumped off, flipping through the air and landed in front of them. 

"You fire one more bullet and I will make sure you regret living to tell the tale." she grinned, raising her white bow with matching arrows, aiming one at them. "I made winter come early for your buddies over there, unless you want to join them I suggest you run." 

Everyone's eyes widened at the person in front of them. There, like a beacon of light stood The White Arrow; protector of Star City and now Gotham.

The thugs in front of them didn't seem to get the message and began firing at her as she took off hiding behind an over turned car. Grabbing the right type, White Arrow peeked over and shot three concussive arrows at them, watching as they clutched their heads to try and block out the sound.

Quickly she jumped over and took them all down before they could even try and fight back. The others took this to their advantage and helped White Arrow knock them out, as she blew back a piece of stray brown hair out of her face that contrasted against the white of her suit.

Quickly White Arrow turned and looked at the others, "Is everyone alright?" she asked.

Red Robin blinked multiple times, he had to be dreaming. Rory said she had left White Arrow behind, but how was she here? "Yeah, we're okay." he managed to say.

"Good, now don't we have a few supervillains that need their asses kicked?" she grinned.

"How the hell are you here? I thought we sent you home!" Red Hood spoke up. 

"Arsenal brought me a gift, and I decided it was time to try it on." White Arrow laughed. "Bulletproof and the gold designs are electrically insulated. Let's see the Joker try and electrocute me in this." 

"Glad to see you back kiddo." Green Arrow said and hugged her tightly. White Arrow hugged him back and smiled. 

"Good to be back. Now, what's the plan?" she asked.

"We need to get inside and stop Ivy, she has Harley and Clayface with here. Superman and Superboy are melting the ice as we speak." Nightwing spoke up.

"I hate to steal their thunder, but I kind of just blew it up." White Arrow chuckled. "Red Robin and I will start to make our way in, the rest of you can clean up out here and we can pick up Superboy on the way," she said.

Red Robin stepped forward and took her hand. "Sounds like a plan, let's get going." she gave him a nod and took off with him right behind her. As they ran, they passed Superman and Superboy.

"Nice suit Sunshine!" Superboy called and flew down. 

"Courtesy of Team Arrow, let's head inside." he gave her a nod and followed them in as they made their way through the building. Once they were inside, it was eerily quiet not a sound could be heard. Not even their footsteps. 

White Arrow led the group quietly, listening in for any sign of Harley, Clayface, or Ivy. She had a new sense of purpose now and was ready to put an end to this once and for all. As they walked, Harley's voice could be heard from down the hall.

"Don't ya think that this is a little too much? All because some girl won't go out with you Pammy?" she asked.

"She is more than just some girl Harley, she is different. I can feel it, her mind is polluted by men and I need to fix that." Ivy responded.

A shiver went down White Arrow's back as she listened. Ivy really was crazy, good thing crazy wasn't her type. Quietly, she aimed an arrow and grappled up to the vent above and slid into it with Red Robin and Superboy right behind her. The more they walked, they could peek in below and see the three of them in the Mayor's office talking about White Arrow and Ivy's obsession with her.

"Pammy, it's obvious the girl doesn't like you. Just go ahead and kill her already!" Harley reasoned.

"She's right, this girl is no good," Clayface said, his voice vibrating the vents from how loud and rumbly it was. 

"You're both wrong, she is good. That's what makes her so different. She is good, but she has a darkness to her." Ivy said as she poured the vial into a device.

"We should probably intervene." Red Robin mumbled. The other two gave him a nod and they all dropped out of the vent. White Arrow swung down and kicked Ivy in the side, sending her through the door. Red Robin fought off Harley while Superboy fought off Clayface. 

The only one in the room doing this against their will was Clayface, somehow Ivy managed to use her toxins on him and get him to do what she wanted. White Arrow got to her feet and aimed an arrow at Ivy. "I hate to drop in unexpectedly, but what else could you expect from me?" she grinned.

Ivy frowned and got to her feet. "This will be the last time you cross me Arrow!" she snarled and set multiple plants towards her. Quickly, she ran and dodged them all before they could touch her, firing arrows at them that froze them to the wall. 

"Hey! Can you give me a few of those for Clayface here!?" Superboy called. 

White Arrow turned and fired a few at Clayface, freezing parts of him for Superboy before she continued to fight off Ivy. Red Robin was locked in combat with Harley, trying to keep her from helping out her friend. 

Ivy only seemed to get angrier. "You don't know when to quit do you?" she snapped. 

"Nope, but that's part of my charm!" she laughed and jumped over her as she kicked her in the chest. White Arrow pinned her down and put a collar on Ivy, that she had picked up from Oracle before she left. It suppressed her abilities and that meant Ivy couldn't fight her off. She cuffed her and grinned.

"But you like my charm, sorry Ivy. Bad guys don't win." she teased. Looking up she saw that Robin was having trouble with Harley who was flipping around him. "Don't move." she snapped and got up before she jumped up onto Harley's shoulder and pulled her to the ground head first, knocking her out.

"Thanks for that." Red chuckled and kissed her cheek. White Arrow batted him away and watched as Clayface calmed down and looked around. With Ivy's abilities subdued, so was her mind control. That meant that Two-Face, Freeze, and Penguin were all free from her control as well and were probably high tailing it out of the area.

Clayface gave them a nod before he slid out of the room in a silent thank you. Once he was gone, the three heroes collapsed to the floor and sat down with Ivy glaring daggers at them.

"It's over." White Arrow muttered.

"Finally, after almost a year it's over." Red Robin mumbled.

"I don't know how you lot haven't gone nuts yet, Gotham is crazy." Superboy chuckled as he laid on the floor. 

"It's home." White Arrow and Red Robin answered together before they laughed and shared a kiss. Slowly the three of them got up and drug Ivy and Harley out of the building where Batman and the others were waiting with the GCPD there waiting for them. 

"You three did good, I'm proud." 

The three of them gave each other a look. "Did Batman just say that he is proud of us?" Superboy muttered quietly.

"I think he did, are we sure he didn't get hit on the head?" White Arrow chuckled. 

Batman crossed his arms with a slightly amused expression on his face. "Where is Clayface?" he asked.

"I let him go he was under Ivy's control, therefore he is innocent." White Arrow spoke. "At least for now." 

Superman stepped forward and looked at the three of them. "You know White Arrow, that offer is still up in the air if you want to join the League. Four members saw what you did here today in person, not to mention those who saw it nationwide," he spoke.

"But she could always join me and the Outlaws, someone has to keep Arsenal in line you know?" Red Hood spoke up, standing on the other side of Batman with his arms crossed.

White Arrow looked between the two of them, two different teams wanted her to join them. Red Robin took her hand as she turned to look at him. "Whatever you pick, I will be here waiting for you." he smiled.

She blushed a little and took a deep breath. Before she had said that she wasn't a team player, but Red Hood was right. All she has done since she arrived in Gotham was work on a team, and maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is the final chapter of The Archer! She is officially White Arrow again and not only the League wants her, but so do the Outlaws. So what team does she join? This is where you come in.

I have an ending in mind already, but I want to know what team you think she should join and why? Who knows, it might sway my final decision. It won't change much in book two, which I will officially announce in the epilogue, but minor details will change.

Until Next Time,