"Come on Bruce! You haven't found anything because I am not out in the field for him to follow!" Rory said, following Bruce down the steps to the cave. "I've been given a clean bill of health by the doc and yet you refuse to let me out!"

"Rory, we are not having this conversation again. You live under my roof, you will follow my rules," he replied, the batcape swaying behind him as he walked.

"I follow ninety-two percent of your rules, and besides we are having this conversation again because I don't understand why you want to keep me inside!" she snapped. 

The others were already down in the cave, watching as Rory followed Bruce around while she pestered him with questions. It was mid-August now, and Rory was completely healed from her encounter with Deathstroke. She had thought that was the main reason he kept her inside, but Rory had the sneaking suspicion that there was something more he was hiding from her in true Bruce fashion. 

"Just let me out for a couple of hours and you can follow me around! Slade isn't showing his ugly face because he knows you are keeping me locked up in the Manor! He's after me, what happens when he changes tactics and goes after the others instead?" she asked, following after him as he walked towards the computer.

"Can you trust that I am doing this to keep you safe? Oliver put you in my care and I am going to make sure he gets you back in one piece. We have had too many close calls with you as it is, I am not taking any more risks." he said, setting his cup of coffee down as he typed on the keyboard looking for different things.

"I will trust you when you quit treating me like a child! I'm an adult Bruce and I am not one of your kids. I abide by your rules out of respect, but if you can't give me the same and actually let me in on whatever the fuck is going on in that bat brain of yours then I'll figure it out myself." She snapped.

The cave was deadly quiet, Rory's voice rang as it bounced off the walls. The others all stared at Rory with wide eyes, not many people would straight up yell at Batman like that and get away with it. In fact, the only people who got away with it were his kids, but even then they knew that there were limits. 

Bruce took several deep breaths, trying to quell his anger. Rory had a point, he knew that it was wrong to keep her in the dark but there were things that he couldn't just tell her out in the open. He was still trying to solve the mystery of why Jesse disappeared the night Oliver's safe house went sky high, only to find him hours later walking around the bowery district. There was something going on, and it was safest to keep her and Jesse where he could watch them both.

"Rory, I know you are an adult and I know that you are not mine. But I need you to trust me when I say that there are things I need to figure out before I let you back into the field," he said, trying not to raise his voice at her. That was the last thing he needed to do.

Her eyes narrowed at him, for a man that seemed to preach trusting each other as a team he trusted her the least out of them all. Rory constantly felt out of the loop and it was getting on her nerves. "Fine. I'll be in my room, reading the same fucking books again because I can't even go out and buy more."

"But we can order more for you," Damian spoke up.

"That's beside the point gremlin child!" she snapped as she stormed at the steps, slamming doors as she walked to her room. 

The cave had gone back to being quiet at his kids gave him a look. "Nice going there Bruce, now she's pissed. I'll go make sure she doesn't try to sneak out again." Dick muttered and walked up the stairs to go try and talk to her.

Tim and Jason crossed their arms, alongside Barbara and Dick were the only ones that knew what Bruce was hiding from her. They had all thought it was weird that Jesse had disappeared without a trace to show up on the docks, especially when he was part of the explosion too. 

It killed Tim to keep this from her, he hated the idea of keeping a secret from her but he had to agree that even talking about it with Jesse in the same building was dangerous and Rory couldn't join them on patrol and keep Jesse in for an unknown reason. Roy was allowed out, but that's because Jason always on his tail and he came out of the explosion with the least amount of injuries.

Bruce looked at the two of them, "You two understand where I'm coming from right?" he asked.

Jason hated it, but he did agree with Bruce. Jesse was one of his closest friends, and he could see what Rory and Roy didn't. He had been acting weird since that night, and it worried him. Jason wanted to figure out what was wrong with his friend while keeping the other two safe.

"Yeah, we get it B, but we don't like it," he answered.

Tim sighed and looked to the door Rory and Dick left through, he wanted to be the one to go comfort her but there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be able to keep the secret from her. "We can't keep it from her much longer though, Rory is too smart for that. The only reason she hasn't figured it out herself is because I never told her what had happened, and she is too mad to think about it with a clear mind." 

"I know you don't like it, neither do I. I need to do what is best to keep her safe, and if she hates me for it then so be it." 

Tim and Jason let out a sigh as they pulled on their masks. "When Dick gets back, the three of us will head to and try to find more clues," Jason said, grabbing his helmet.

Upstairs, Dick followed Rory as she stomped up to her room and slammed the door before he could follow her in. "Come on little arrow, let me in," he asked.

"Go away Dick, I don't want to hear whatever bullshit excuse Bruce told you to say to me." she snapped.

"Bruce didn't send me up, and it's not bullshit. Just let me in and we can talk about it okay?" 

There was silence before Rory opened the door, looking up at him with a glare. "What do you want Grayson?" 

Dick walked into her room, looking around before he shut the door behind him. "I understand why you are so upset, believe me, I do. When I was Robin, he would ground me from missions and patrol for various reasons. But I learned that when he didn't tell me why it was because he couldn't not that he wouldn't." he said sitting on her desk chair.

"So you're saying that I am benched because of something he can't tell me? What the hell is so bad that he can't tell me?" she asked, plopping down onto her bed.

"There are things at work that we don't understand, and it involves you and Slade. We need to figure it out before we let you in on it, if we do this wrong it could get you killed and that is something we don't want," he explained.

Rory let out a huff as she hugged her pillow. "I get it, but it's annoying being left out of the loop. I barely get to see my own boyfriend lately because he is working overtime, I just want to help. But you have to agree with me, if I don't show up soon Slade is not going to wait much longer. He knows who I am close to, and that puts a target on everyone's back especially Tim's. If he gets hurt because of me..." 

Dick saw the expression on her face and gave her a sad smile before wheeling the chair towards her. "Rory, look at me. Nothing is going to happen to Tim. If you want, Jason and I will keep him close to us to make sure he gets nowhere near him okay?" 

Rory wiped the stray tears. "Alright, and you have my word that I will not sneak out of the Manor. But tell Bruce what I said, I know I'm right. He won't wait for me forever, and I don't want to know what he will do to get me out again." 

He gave her a nod as he ruffled her hair, a smile playing on his face. "Sure thing little arrow, now you have my permission to go raid Jason's personal library to find something to read while we are out okay?" 

Rory laughed, "Thanks Dick, you're really good at this big brother thing you know?" 

"That's what they tell me." He chuckled as he got up, leaving Rory alone in her room. He walked down to the cave to see that Tim and Jason were ready to go, as he slid into his suit. Placing the domino mask on his face, he looked at Bruce.

"She has a point though, Slade is not going to wait that much more for her to show her face. He is going to come after one of us to get to her eventually, and we need to tell her soon even if we have something or not." Dick muttered to Bruce as he passed him, walking towards his bike.

Bruce sighed as he put the cowl on her head. "I know, if we find nothing tonight then I will tell her personally once we get back."

Dick nodded as he climbed onto his bike and kicked it to life as he drove out with Jason and Tim at his side. "I told Rory that we would keep Red Robin with us tonight, she's worried Slade will try to something to him to drag her out of the Manor," he said through the com.

"Sounds like something he would do, besides we will be able to cover more ground with the three of us as long as we don't stray too far from each other." Red Hood said.

"I feel like we keep missing something, why don't we go back to the safe house site and retrace everything from there to where we found him." Red Robin said. 

Nightwing gave a hum of agreement, "Let's start there." he said and made a turn to head towards the exploded site. As he rode, Red Robin and Red Hood followed right behind him. They heard the thunder crack across the sky, as the rain began to fall hitting their faces while they drove.

"Of course it had to fucking rain on the way there." Red Hood muttered under his breath.

"What? Did you leave your insulated leather jacket back at the cave?" Red Robin teased.

"What your mouth replacement or you might just take wrong turn and land right in the harbor." 

"Can you two not fight for five minutes? We aren't even there yet and you're fighting like kids." Nightwing said, rolling his eyes as they pulled to a stop at the site of what used to be Oliver's bigger safe house. 

Hopping off the bike, the three of them took a deep breath. "Alright boys, let's get looking for clues," he said as they walked around looking for a sign of something. 

Red Robin walked over towards where they had found Roy, he felt like he missed something. There had to be something more to this, his head wasn't in the best place that night with the worry about Rory present in his mind at that time. Maybe taking another look with a fresh mind would help him. 

He ran his hand over the gravel where Jesse was, the ash patterns were still weird. There was a patch where it was really light like it was covered by something. Could something have landed on him like it did with Rory, and the ash fell on whatever landed on him instead? Looking around, he saw that there was another large slab of debris and walked over towards it.

Just from a glance, it matched the shape of the hole Jesse was in. The rain was falling heavier than before now, and it pattered against the concrete but that wasn't what caught his attention. What had caught his attention was that there was a different sound that wasn't the sound of rain hitting concrete. It was rain hitting glass.

Red Robin looked around the floor before he found a syringe of sorts that they had somehow missed before. "Hey, guys! I found something!" he called. 

Nightwing and Red Hood turned and ran over to him, looking at the syringe in his hand. "Does this look familiar to either of you?" he asked.

Nightwing carefully took it from him and twirled it in his hand, "Yeah this looks really similar to the stuff Mad Hatter uses to control people." he thought aloud.

"I thought he was in Arkham?" Red Hood asked. He was almost certain that the creep was still there, Red Hood was the one who had out Jervis there last time after all.

"He is, but that doesn't mean someone else can't use his tech and serum. If Jervis left his stuff unattended, then it's free for anyone to grab if they knew where to look. Slade has been following us for a long time, it's entirely possible that he found out about Jervis and his tech and decided to use it to his advantage." Red Robin explained.

"But I thought Bats tested Jesse for any unknown toxin in his body?" Nightwing asked looking at the other two.

"Not exactly, we ruled out Tetch from the beginning because we knew he was still in Arkham. With the likes of Scarecrow and Ivy out and about still, we tested him for their toxins first and it came back negative. If Jesse really has some of Jervis' mind control serum in him, then we need to get Rory out of the Manor now." he said and got up and ran towards his bike.

Nightwing pressed the comm in his ear, connecting to Barbara and Bruce. "Guys, we found something. The popular theory is that Slade got a hold of Mad Hatter's mind control serum and gave it to Jesse, you need to find him and test him. And keep him away from Rory!" 

Barbara looked around as she listened. No one was in the Manor except for her, Rory, Jesse, and Alfred and she was the only one in the cave. "No one else is here Nightwing, are you sure that it's his?" 

"We're positive Babs, we found a syringe with his logo on it. Tell Alfred that he needs to get Rory out of there, and away from Jesse." Red Hood said quickly.

Barbara turned quickly and grabbed the phone to call Alfred, but the power shut down. She looked around, trying to see in the dark. Grabbing the flashlight at her side, she pushed her chair around trying to see where she was going. Barbara was trapped downstairs in the cave, with the power out that meant she couldn't get out with the elevator until the emergency power came on and that was going to take a couple of minutes.

Grabbing her cell phone, she dialed Rory who she hoped had her phone on her and charged.

Rory had been curled up in her bed reading one of Jason's books that she kidnapped, courtesy of Dick when the power went out. She sat up and looked around, checking her phone. The storm must have knocked it out, figuring that Alfred needed help she got up and turned on the flashlight on her phone before exiting her room.

Looking around, she saw nobody around. Alfred and Jesse were nowhere to be seen and Babs was down in the cave. If the Manor had no power, then the cave might be down too, and she knew Barbara was stuck down there until the power came back on. She was on her way to the stairs down when her phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"Rory? Thank god, you answered. Is everything okay?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, Babs I'm okay. A little thunder never scared me, what about you? Are you okay?" she asked, walking into the study.

"I'm okay, just stuck in the cave until the backup generator kicks on. Have you seen Jesse or Alfred?" she asked.

"No, I was in my room reading Jason's copy of Frankenstein. Why? What's up?" Rory looked around as she opened the path to the cave, only for it not to work. Of course, it wasn't going to work, the power was out. "I'm stuck up here until the power comes back, the entrance is blocked."

"You need to find Alfred, and stick to him. Do not leave Alfred's sight, Rory, you're in danger." 

Rory looked confused and was about to ask when her phone blinked and died. Hitting the phone with her hand, she let out a groan. The stupid thing still had some juice left, why the hell did it die?

Even though the Manor was dark, Rory felt a presence behind her and she knew for a fact it was not Alfred. Barbara had said that she was in danger, but who was she in danger from that she needed to find Alfred and stick to him like glue? Rory tightened the grip on her phone, ready to throw it at whoever was behind her.

She heard a footstep and quickly, she turned and launched her phone at the person behind her as she dodged away. When she heard a familiar ow, she recognized it as Jesse. She peeked over the side of the chair and saw him rubbing his head as the lightning lit up the room. "Oh, it's just you," she said with a sigh of relief.

"What the hell was that for?" he asked with a chuckle. 

Rory gave him a shrug. "Babs said I'm not safe and I need to find Alfred, do you know where he is?" 

Jesse shook his head. "No, but I know a good place to hide if you need to stay safe." he offered his hand out to her with his signature smile, the same one that made her fall for him years ago. Rory looked at his hand then back at him.

She was about to take his hand when Barbara's warning rang through her mind. She had told her to stick to Alfred, Rory didn't hear anything about Jesse. Now that she was thinking about it, he had been acting a little strange but she had just brushed it off as cabin fever. But with the warning she got before her phone died, she wasn't so sure it was cabin fever.

"I think I'm going to go look for Alfred," she said as she walked towards the door, only for Jesse to block her way. Rory tried to go around him, but Jesse wouldn't let her leave. This was starting to get freaky. "Jess, what the hell is wrong with you? Halloween isn't for another two months, why are you trying to freak me out?" she asked.

"I'm doing what I was told, Aurora," he answered.

Rory's eyes widened. It was Jesse she needed to hide from, but he had her cornered in the study and she was weaponless while he had his meta powers. "And what is that Jess?" she asked.

"To bring you to Slade Wilson."

Rory grabbed the closest thing to her and threw it at him, as Jesse shot a blast of ice at her. Dodging away, she barely managed to get away from it. Looking around, Rory couldn't see any other way out the study that wasn't the door and the window but that was on the other side of the room. 

Jesse continued to shoot ice at her as Rory managed to keep herself from getting frozen in the process, as she tried to make a break for the door. It was hard for her to fight him off with the power out and lighting only illuminating the room every few minutes. Grabbing one of the heavier items, Rory threw it at the window and flinched as it shattered everywhere, she was about to jump out it but Jesse beat her to it and froze the window shut getting a portion of her arm in the process. 

Looking around, Rory truly was trapped. Her best bet was to make a break for the door and try to knock him out while trying to not get frozen in the process. Jumping up on the chair, she flipped and kicked him in the head, watching him fall to the floor. Taking this as her chance, Rory pushed the door open and ran looking for Alfred.

The power was still out, and she kept bumping into various things as she ran. No doubt that Jesse was behind her, looking for a chance to catch her. Rory ran towards the kitchen and grabbed a kitchen knife and hid behind a counter, putting her hand over her mouth to muffle her breathing.

She heard the door creak open, and her heart rate picked up. Rory wasn't prepared to hurt Jesse, but she would have to if it meant that she stayed out of Slade's grasp. Jesse's footsteps echoed across the quiet Manor, as he got closer to her.

"Come on Aurora, you're making this harder than it needs to be. Just come on out and I won't hurt you, or your little boy toy." he grinned, looking around. "I promise." 

Rory jumped out from her hiding place and threw the knife, aiming for his shoulder but to her surprise he caught it. Her eyes went wide as he flipped it in his hand before he threw it back, Rory ducking just in time to see that it would have gone through her throat if she didn't duck.

Getting up, she ran through the second door out of the kitchen and dining area before heading down to the garage. If she managed to get a pair of her keys, Rory would be able to drive around to the waterfall entrance to the cave. She threw open the door to the stairs down and began to run down them. 

Jesse must have thought ahead because they were covered in ice. Rory's feet slid out from under her as she tumbled down the long flight, hitting the bottom with a loud thud. If Barbara had time to warn her, then that meant Tim and the others managed to find something and they were on their way back right? 

Rory gripped her side with a groan, that was going to bruise. She looked to the top of the stairs, where she was Jesse standing there with a grin on his face. The way the lightning illuminated his face, he looked straight out of a horror movie. Carefully, she got up and missed the icicle he threw at her missing her shoulder by inches.

She darted to the key box on the wall and searched in the dark for her keys. Her hands fumbled with the different sets, as she searched trying to find hers. Jesse's feet thumped against the steps slowly as he stalked her, he knew that there was no way she was getting out if the power didn't come back on. The garage door was automatic and needed the power to work.

Rory managed to find her keys and hopped on her bike and turned it on, swerving it away from the garage door. There was a window she could get out if she was fast enough. Without looking back, Rory revved her bike and drove it through the window as she covered face from the shattering glass.

Her body was met with the heavy rain outside as she drove down the path and towards the entrance to the cave. There was no way Jesse was going to catch her right? Wrong.

As the entrance to the cave came into sight, out of the corner of her eye she saw Jesse ride down the hills on a slide of ice to try and cut her off before she could make it in. Rory could see that the emergency power was back on, and if she could make it in before he got to her, she would be safe with the security of the Batcave.

Jesse's eyes followed Rory as she picked up speed, going for the entrance to the cave. Forming a large icicle in his hand, he launched it at her. Rory saw it coming and swerved hard enough that it missed her, but got the back wheel of her bike, sending her across the gravel drive and rolled towards the moat that laid beneath the waterfall.

Rory tried to push herself up, this was a bad place to be. With all of this water at his disposal, Jesse was even more dangerous than before. With a groan she managed to roll onto her back, only to let out a scream as she saw Jesse above her. Rory tried her hardest to get up, but he kicked her to the floor and tried to freeze her.

She grabbed his wrists, pushing them up so they didn't hit her, but that didn't last very long. After she took the dive from her bike, her body was weak and she was losing as Jesse wrapped his hands around her throat.

Rory wriggled under him, trying to pry him off her as he strangled her.

Tim drove up the path, ahead of Dick and Jason when he saw two figures on the ground outside the path in the cave and recognized Jesse's dark hair. He stopped his bike and dove off of it, running for Rory and Jesse. Grabbing one of his batarangs, he threw it at Jesse lodging it in his shoulder. 

Jesse let out a cry of pain, his grip on Rory faltering long enough that she was able to punch him, and kicked him off of her. Seeing Tim there, and the others behind him she rolled towards them as Tim helped her up. Dick and Jason went after Jesse, only for him to disappear in the woods out of sight.

Bruce pulled up to the cave seeing three bikes tossed to the side, and Rory's crashed one and flew out of the Batmobile. He saw Jason and Dick returning from the woods as Tim held Rory close to his chest. "What happened?" he asked, walking over to them.

"It was Jesse, he was trying to kidnap me. He would have if these guys didn't show up, will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on and why Jesse just tried to kill me?" she asked, looking between them all. 

Steph, Cass, and Roy all pulled up seeing the traffic on the way into the cave and ran over, seeing the damage. "What the hell?" Roy asked and saw Rory curled into Tim's chest. "Where's Jess?" 

Rory looked down to avoid Roy's gaze, how could she tell him that Jesse had tried to kidnap her and take her to Slade? Tim looked down at her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he held her close to him. "I've got you." 

"All of you, in the cave now. We have a lot to talk about, and it involves Jesse." Bruce said, helping the boys get their bikes upright as they all made their way into the cave.

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

This was fun right? That little bit with Jesse a few chapters ago? Yeah, it is still relevant people! But we are officially in the endgame, the final act of this story. I have to say that this is by far the best I have ever done on a book and I am really proud of myself for it.

This is also the longest chapter in the whole book and I was tempted to split this into two but decided against it. But just a little PSA, don't rag on your friends, or family for writing fanfiction okay? It's something they are passionate about and don't need your negative comments about it. It just makes them lose all inspiration for it and just overall quit because what's the point?

There's a reason I have only ever finished three books in the eight years I've been on this site.

But enough about me and my problems, Rory has quite a few of them herself. Like her best friend trying to kill her but not kill her at the same time. She's going to find out everything they know and the next one is going to be exciting!

Hope you all have a great day!

Until Next Time,