Rory didn't know what the hell was going on, all she knew was that things were blowing up and she needed to get herself out of there while the Joker and his goons were distracted. With a grunt, she slowly got to her feet as she gripped her side. Rory could tell that there were a few cracked ribs at least, but she pushed through the pain and walked to the door. 

Grabbing the handle she opened it, but as she opened it someone came in from the other side and threw the door open knocking her back onto the floor with a hiss of pain. Looking up, she saw that it was one of the goons from earlier. The Joker must have sent him back to see if she was still around.

The goon looked down at her with a grin. "Boss said you might try to escape," he pulled a gun out of his back pocket and cocked it. "I'm curious, how did you get out of those?" he aimed the gun at Rory who was flat on her back trying to catch her breath and gripping her stomach.

"Broke my thumbs, hurt like hell too. Want to give it a try?" she taunted, panting softly.

The goon chuckled and walked closer so he stood above her and got on his knees, keeping her pinned to the floor. "Well, the boss said that if I found you trying to escape, I could just kill you. Looks like it's my lucky day." 

"I wouldn't consider this lucky." Rory lifted her knee and hit him in the gut before kicking him off of her and rolling to her feet. "One thing you idiots never understood, if I could kick your ass tied to a chair then I could still kick your ass without hands."

Getting to his feet, he aimed the gun at her and narrowed his eyes. "Then let me make this quick and painless for you." 

Rory darted to the side and barely missed the shot, it grazing her side. She gripped it tighter and saw the blood seeping through her tank top. The goon aimed again and Rory dodged too late this time, the bullet hitting her square in the thigh.

She let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground on her knees, she saw that the bullet went straight through. That was a plus to her negative situation. Looking up, the goon had the gun pressed against her forehead with a grin on his face.

"Say night night, little bird." 

Rory rolled onto her back and kicked the gun out of his hand, and flipped onto her feet. Both of them saw the gun several feet away and they ran. Ignoring the pain in her thigh, she dove for the gun and grabbed it not thinking before she shot him in the head. 

The goon fell to the floor with a thud, a bullet between the eyes. Rory laid on her back frozen in shock at what she had just done. Her eyes stared at the lifeless look of the man in front of her as she slowly got to her feet, keeping her grip on the gun.

It was her or him, and Rory made the choice. She kept telling herself that her options were limited, and she didn't have any other choice. Rory's hands started to shake, the gun rattling in her hand. She would have died if she didn't kill him first.

Rory kept telling herself those things over and over, convincing herself it was the truth. But was it?

She suddenly felt sick to her stomach, seeing the blood and brain matter seep out of his head made her stomach twist and she bent over and threw up. There was almost nothing in her stomach, so it was all stomach acid and it burned her throat.

Hearing noises behind her, Rory wiped her mouth and hid behind the opened door holding the gun still. It was a pair of footsteps, two people to be exact and they were heavy so she expected it to be two grown men. The power was flickering in and out, so she could barely see anything.

She heard them stop in front of the open door. Everything was silent for a moment before she heard them walk in. Taking a deep breath Rory crept out from behind the door, going behind the two men try to and get out the open door while she could. 

One or both of them must have heard the pads of her feet because the taller one of the two straightened out and turned. Rory turned on her heel and went running out of the room, but not before she was grabbed around the waist. Two arms wrapped themselves around her and pulled her back into the room.

Quickly she flipped herself up and wrapped her legs around his neck and pulled him to the floor with a loud thud. Her thigh was still stinging in pain as she got up and tried to run again, only to be grabbed by the ankle. Rory hit the ground letting out a cry of pain and tried to kick him off of her. 

"Princess?"

She quit kicking and froze, only one person called her that. The power flickered back on and she saw the faces of Nightwing and Red Hood, the latter still keeping a tight grip on her ankle.

"What the fuck took you guys so long?" 

Red Hood let go of her ankle and helped Rory to her feet. "Holy shit, are you okay?" he asked, holding her up.

"Oh just peachy, being held captive for almost a month was on my bucket list you know?" she snapped, her grip on the gun tightening.

Nightwing's eyes gazed down and saw the gun in her hand and quickly turned around to see the man lying dead on the floor. "Arrow, did you do that?" he asked, walking forward slowly. Red Hood looked and he too saw the gun in her hand and made the connection.

Slowly he reached forward and took her hand that held the gun. "Why don't you let me take this off your hands princess?" Red's hand grabbed hers while the other took the gun and set it on the floor.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" 

Red Hood could see the look in Rory's eyes, she had killed someone and she was scared by it. Rory gave them a slight nod. "He grazed my side and got me in the thigh." Bringing the attention back to her thigh, it began to hurt worse and her stance wobbled.

Nightwing caught her and held her up. "You're going to be alright, let's get you out of here."

"Wait, where is he?" she asked, looking up at the both of them. 

Red Hood and Nightwing looked at each other in confusion. "Where's who, the Joker? Probably halfway to Timbuktu after he saw us come blazing in to find you." 

Rory shook her head. "No, where's Red Robin?" 

"He's back at the cave, with Oracle. Red's going to be okay princess, I promise." Red Hood said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Rory stepped back and shook her head again. "N-No, you don't understand. He said he had him here, Joker showed me a piece of his uniform and-and..." she began to stumble over her words as she tried to get them out, suddenly Rory felt like she couldn't breathe as tears ran down her face. 

Nightwing grabbed her face and made her look at him, his eyes meeting hers. "Arrow, Rory, listen to me. He is okay, I swear. The Joker didn't get to him, I made sure it didn't happen I promise. We need you to calm down before we make an escape, can you do that for me?"

Rory looked at Nightwing, his blue eyes shining through the mask while the power continued to flicker. She could tell that he was being honest with her, taking a deep breath she wiped the tears and nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here." 

Nightwing stood straight and picked her up carefully. "Red, where's the nearest exit?" 

Red Hood pointed out the door. "At the end of the hall, there is a window we can jump out of. But we better be quick, we've already wasted enough time." 

Nightwing gave him a nod before poking his head out the door, keeping Rory close to his chest. Seeing that the coast was clear, he silently walked down the hall with Red Hood right behind him watching his back.

Once they got to the window, he set Rory down carefully and opened the window. Looking out it, he saw that it was a straight drop. Their best chance was to jump and grapple out towards the next building. 

"You go first, and take her with you. I'll be right behind you." Red Hood nodded and wrapped an arm around Rory's waist as she wrapped hers around him to hang on tight. 

"Hood, I swear if you drop me I'll kill you," she muttered, making him laugh. 

"Don't know if I should take your death threats serious or not, hang on tight princess." Red Hood jumped out the window and grabbed his grapple gun before he fired it, grabbing onto the closest building. Rory tightened her grip on him and closed her eyes as she felt the fresh night air for the first time in a while.

Once they left, the building more bombs began to go off. Joker must have had safety precautions set in place. Making sure the other two got out safe, Nightwing jumped out and followed them as he grappled onto the next building where Red Hood and Rory were waiting on him.

When he got up there, he saw Jason had removed his helmet and took off Rory's mask that somehow stayed on the entire time. Rory was sat on the roof and leaned back against the railing with her eyes closed and an arm draped across her stomach.

Taking a deep breath, she let out a cough. It hurt her to do anything and should probably go to a hospital, but there was something she needed to do first and that was to go see Tim. She felt Jason wrap gauze and a bandage around her thigh to stop the bleeding and checked her for any other serious injuries, the topic of what she did before they had arrived still hanging in the air.

Rory had a feeling that they roughly knew what had happened that night with Slade now, and they knew for sure that she had shot that guy back in the warehouse but she didn't know what to say. Sorry for breaking the rules? Sorry for killing him before he killed me?

She took a deep breath and decided it was best to say something simple. "You guys, are fucking idiots. 5227 Freak Circuit? I literally could not have been more clear than yelling hey, I have a fucking tracker in my tooth and the frequency number it was." 

Jason let out a chuckle, watching her as she opened her eyes. "In our defense, it was cryptic as hell and even Bruce didn't pick up on it." 

Rory rolled her eyes. "But I'm sorry, for everything. For sneaking out, getting myself thrown out that window, for shooting that guy..." 

Nightwing knelt next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright Rory, everyone makes mistakes. You went through a lot in the last few weeks, and we both understand. Now, we need to get you to the hospital. Just by looking at you, you have multiple cracked ribs, one or two are broken, fractured arms, legs, and collar bone and you need nutrition and rest."

"No offense big bird, but she needs to go to the cave first. A certain someone will have our heads if we don't bring her to him first" Jason said, putting his helmet back on his head and standing up as he pulled Rory to her feet carefully.

"It's obvious she can't go across the rooftops, and our bikes are a few blocks away. How are we going to get her there?" Nightwing asked. 

"I'll be okay until we get to the bikes, I can handle it," Rory spoke up, shifting her weight.

"I can carry her as I grapple down the street, maybe you can go ahead and beat us there to get some things ready." Red Hood said, giving Nightwing a look that said 'And mentally prepare Tim, it's not a pretty sight.'

Nightwing gave them a nod. "Alright, don't you lose her Hood. It was hard enough to find her once, I don't want to do it again." He dove off the roof and took off for his bike that was waiting for him uptown.

Red Hood held Rory close to him again as he grappled uptown as well, to get to his bike. He had to go slower because he held Rory and didn't want to hurt her more than she already was. Once they got to his bike, he sat her down on it carefully and looked in the storage compartment for something.

Rory watched as he rummaged for something, letting out an 'aha' as he pulled out a leather jacket and a spare red helmet. He walked around and helped Rory get the jacket on, before placing the helmet on her head.

"Aw, it's like looking at a mini-me." he chuckled.

"Fuck you, Hood," she chuckled and scooted back so he could climb on in front of her and he started up the bike.

"Hang on tight princess," he called and took off for Wayne Manor. Rory was glad he gave her a jacket, it was warm and it covered the bruises and cuts on her upper body. Maybe he had given it to her for those specific reasons, she knew it must have been hard to see her injuries in real life but was grateful for the jacket.

As the pulled through the waterfall, Rory looked around with a smile as she saw the familiar cave walls that were filled with bats. There were hushed voices coming from the computer, and she could see multiple figures there.

Jason pulled to a stop and took his helmet off and set it to the side and helped Rory get hers off and lifted her off the bike, setting her down on her feet. Rory stood there silently as she looked at the others across the cave, more specifically looked at a certain black-haired boy whose eyes met hers instantly.

Quickly Tim got up and pushed past the others and ran towards her. "Rory!"

She let out a small laugh, her eyes welling up with tears. Tim really was okay, he wasn't hurt and he was alive. Urging her feet to move, Rory ran towards him as she wiped the tears from her eyes. 

She held her arms open and Tim ran into them and wrapped his arms around her picking her up. Setting her down, he brushed back her hair and placed kisses all over her face making her giggle and grab his collar, making his lips meet hers in a passionate kiss.

Tim kept his arms wrapped tightly around Rory's waist as he kissed her, putting every ounce of emotion he had into it as she gripped the back of his neck. Rory was home, and she was home with Tim.

He held her tighter, making Rory wince slightly and hiss in pain. Quickly he let her go and cupped her cheeks, looking at her. "I was so worried about you," he said as he wiped a stray tear from her face.

"I'm okay Tim, I'm right here and I'm okay," she said softly, her throat hurting from keeping back her sobs. Her shoulders shook and her voice quivered, but she didn't cry. 

Tim's eyes didn't leave her as he took in every inch of her body noticing all the cuts, scars, burns, and various other marks. He could also see that she was trying to keep herself from crying, her nose was red as were her eyes from fighting back the tears. Carefully he wrapped his arms around her again and hugged her close. "It's okay Songbird, I've got you."

Rory buried her face in his chest as she gripped his shirt, she knew that the second they both let go either Dick or Jason would take her away to a hospital and she didn't want that. All she wanted was to get a good night's rest with Tim at her side, and maybe some of Alfred's cooking.

Tim ran his fingers through her hair the best he could without pulling it and looked over at Dick and Jason, giving them a silent thank you. Both of them nodded with a smile and walked over. "Alright, we need to get you cleaned up before we even think about doing anything else."

Steph walked forward with the others, Bruce and Damian were still not back from patrol so neither of them knew Rory was back. "I can take her up and help her shower." She pried Rory out of Tim's arms making them laugh a little and led her up the stairs and to her room.

With the two of them gone, Jason and Dick looked at Tim and the others. "She needs to go to a hospital, we may be able to do a lot here but she's going to need more care," Dick said.

Tim let out a sigh, he knew she would need to go but he also knew the fight she would put up to stay at the manor and possibly injure herself more. He didn't want to be without her again, and putting her in a hospital would do just that even if it was to help her heal. 

"There's one more thing you guys need to know, don't tell her we told you. This is so that you aren't caught off guard if she does ever tell you." Jason set his helmet on the desk and sat on it with his arms crossed.

"What do you mean? What happened?" Cassandra asked, standing on Tim's right.

Dick and Jason shared a look. "She killed someone, one of Joker's goons to be exact. I get the feeling this isn't the first time it's happened and I am almost certain it had something to do with Slade." Dick said quietly. 

The others were silent, they knew Rory had a troubled past and they were getting bits and pieces of it from her when she opened up, but this was different. Rory had the potential to be dangerous, deadly even, but just how dangerous was she? With recent events, would they have to watch her closely to make sure she didn't cross any more lines?

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

Well, Rory is back home safe! Just because that's over doesn't mean we are slowing down people, so stay traught, whelmed and prepare for the aster because it's coming. (Also, who gave Dick permission to say all three of those in one sentence? Thirteen-year-old me had a small heart attack when that happened in YJ Outsiders and cried a little)

Until Next Time,