A/N: Just a quick little thing, major italics means a memory. You'll get why in a little bit. And bear with the sadness, I swear you'll like the ending or your read back! I don't think I can give you your read back, but you know what I mean…

Wally was found five minutes later clutching Artemis to his chest and crying into her hair. His tears slowly washed away the blood staining her usually golden locks.

Robin was the first to arrive on the scene. "Oh no," The Boy Wonder practically whimpered out. The ebony headed teen slowly approached Wally and the assumed to be corpse of Artemis. "Wally… Please, is she…?" Robin trailed off, not wanting to confirm his worst fears just yet.

Kid Flash gave no indication one way or the other, and in Robin's opinion, that's the worst way to answer.

"Wally…Wally, please, you have to let her go…" The little bird pleaded. Hugging a dead body is not the way he wanted to remember his best friend for a while.

"I-I can't," Came the broken reply.

"You have to, Walls, just…please. You have to try to let her go."

That broke Wally out of his trance, "'I have to try', huh? Look how well that worked last time!" Furious green eyes met masked blue ones.

Robin would've flinched had he been anyone else. "Wally…I'm sorry-"

The speedster cut him off, "Yeah, everyone's sorry. Even Artemis is," Wally took a moment to correct himself, "Was."

Batman chose that moment to step in. Any later and it would've resulted in either a brawl or a flooding of the Mountain due to tears. "Kid Flash, Robin, go to the briefing room."

Wally was about to protest but realized how fruitless that would be. So he relinquished his hold on Artemis's body and slowly followed Robin to the briefing room.

The bat crouched down next to Artemis's body. From a quick examination it showed cause of death to be blood loss. There were also multiple injuries besides the ones that were last logged in the Med Bay. There was a deep cut in her shoulder that looked to be from a standard issue serrated hunting knife, something that could be gotten at any sports store in the country. Her stitches were viciously broken and a distinctive patterning of pink around the wound referenced to the foam the archer previously mentioned. There was also the beginning of bruises around her wrists, like she was held by a strong grip. The bruises forming on her back supported the theory that she was dragged over to her place of death. Sportsmaster used her to activate the zeta beams so he could cleanly get away. Sportsmaster was cruel with this encounter with his daughter, which was nothing less than expected. With a quick snap his black cape was off and being draped over Artemis's body, nobody needed to see that currently.

Batman cringed internally and began looking for where Artemis was dragged from. He needed all the facts for this case. He traced small blood patterns back to the training room and then up the wall to vent, which was open. Inside he could see the pooling of a large amount of blood. The foam covering her wound must not have lasted long at all. There was also a green quiver and compound bow sitting in the vent, both on their sides. Did the archer not put up a fight? The caped crusader cringed away again and went to the briefing room, where all of the Team and all of the Leaguers who were previously waiting outside were. Superman and Superboy had also brought Green Arrow and Flash in from the kitchen, where their unconscious, but alive, bodies were found.

The phrase time to face the music would fit, if it weren't so deathly silent in the briefing room. Everyone made the correct assumption the second a glum looking, blood coated Wally entered the briefing room with a little bird right on his tail.

Jade approached the Bat first and just stared at him with her jaw set tight. The ex-assassin looked torn between slapping the hero or leaving the room entirely. The feline female finally looked to the side and whispered, "Just tell me we're going to get him."

"We're going to get him, that's for sure," Black Canary piped up from the edge of the room where she was sitting next to Green Arrow's unconscious body.

"Agreed," Came a somber chorus from throughout the room.

"Well, what do we do now?" M'gann asked in between sniffles.

Batman hung his head, "We're going to hold a funeral, then we search for Sporstmaster."

~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~

The Team was flooded with memories as they sat in the Watchtower for Artemis's funeral three days later. This was the funeral for her hero side, where all open comments could be shared. Later, a funeral for anyone who knew Artemis as a civilian would be held.

Robin refused to wear sunglasses to the funeral and Batman accepted that. So most everyone on the Team but Wally and Roy were confused as to whom the blue-eyed boy with the slicked back hair was, well, until said boy used the words "not feeling the aster". That helped piece the puzzle together pretty quickly. Then the other pieces fell into place about Batman and Robin's identities. Suddenly, Jade wasn't so surprised about why her mother called Batman "Brucie".

Everyone was in their seats looking forward where Bruce Wayne stood in front of a podium. "We lost a good fighter, but a better person. Artemis was inarguably one of the most determined people in the business as she tried to prove herself worthy of hero status." Small mumbles of agreements washed through the crowd of heroes. "We will never forget her and what she's accomplished." With that Batman stepped off the stand and allowed the next person to take their turn.

Green Arrow, now Oliver Queen, stepped up next. "It's weird. One second you can have a conversation with someone about speedsters being taped to ceilings," Everyone stole a glance at Wally, "The next you end up speaking at their funeral. I wish more could've been done. I just hope I can continue living with a mindset Artemis helped set up within me. Let there never be a dull moment, the memories suck otherwise."

A last few people went up to speak, saying positive things about Artemis the entire time. It was awkward when Flash went up because he spoke to fast for anyone to understand. It took three tries to get it to a relatively normal speed.

The service had been held so now everyone was milling around and chitchatting. Wally refused to touch the food at the snack table, he instead chose to sit at a seat in the back of the now empty rows of chairs and be caught in a blissful memory before Artemis was ever impaled in the first place.

"Put that chicken leg down right now, KFC!" Artemis yelled at Kid Flash as he made a dash for the last piece of the bucket.

"Freedom for chickens everywhere! Eat beef!" The speedster yelled before running off with the leg clutched in his teeth.

A yell followed him down the hall, "That makes no sense! You're eating chicken right now, Kid Idiot!"

Wally popped back up in the kitchen just long enough to throw the chicken bone away in the trash. "Doesn't have to, Harpy," He smirked, "All that matters is that I got the last piece."

He laughed as he ran away with threats of where he could specifically find arrows when he woke up in the morning. Never had fried chicken tasted so good.

The speedster let a whimsical smile slip onto his face. His first smile in days. It felt right to try and smile again; he would need to smile someday.

Zatanna slipped into the seat next to him with a plateful of saltine crackers on her lap. "Want some?" She offered, well knowing the speedster had barely touched any form of edible substance lately.

Wally shook his head no. "Nah, I'll eat later."

The magician shook her head sadly, "That's been your excuse for the past three days Wally."

"Well it's true," He defended, "I will have to eat sometime, just later."

"Yeah right," She muttered and started nibbling on another cracker. She resisted the urge to shove the crackers into his hands and magically glue him to the chair until the plate was empty. But that'd look bad, plus it would be really hard to explain while sounding remotely sane.

Zatanna herself got caught up in a memory while sitting there in silence. It was right when she moved to the mountain after her dad donned the Helmet of Fate.

A loud knock resounded on the metal door, which Zatanna had locked so she could get some time to cry by herself. The ebony headed teen never got up from her place on the bed, even after the knocks continued and got louder.

Finally the person seemed to give up and stopped knocking. Well, that was until they started yelling, "Open up this door before I break it!" Came an aggravated voice on the other side.

"Go away, Artemis!" Zatanna bit back her sobs so the command would be understandable.

"Nope! Well I hope you're decent or this is going to get really awkward in three seconds," Artemis spoke through the door.

"Three sec-?" Zatanna was cut off by her door suddenly having a new boot print in the surface. Then another, and another. "Alright, alright! Just quit trying to kick down my door!" Zatanna ran to the door before Artemis could leave yet another indent in her wake.

The door opened to Artemis standing there with her arms crossed, "I told you I was going to break your door if you didn't open it."

"Lesson learned," Zee mumbled. She cleared her throat and looked the archer in the face, "What do you want?"

"Well, the feeling-sorry-for-yourself-club was getting a little full in your room so I wanted to know if you wanted to watch a movie with us," The archer offered.

"A movie?" The young magician had typically been sheltered by her father, so watching a movie with friends wasn't something she was used to.

"Yes, those things that usually center around the genres comedy, horror, etcetera and so on. Typically around ninety minutes long. Best seen with popcorn and friends," The blonde smiled at the last part, trying to make sure Zatanna knew they were all friends here.

Zatanna wiped the last remains of tears off her cheeks and smiled back at Artemis, "I'd love to, thanks." For the first time, Zatanna felt included. And it felt…nice.

Roy made his presence known to the two younger teens with a loud clearing of his throat. They jumped slightly and looked at him for what he wanted. "Can I join you?" The older ginger asked.

"Yeah, of course," Zatanna answered as Wally stared at Roy for a moment. No one could guess what was going through his head at that moment.

Roy turned a chair from the row ahead of Zatanna and Wally backwards so he could face them. Both were clearly not talkative types today, so he himself got caught in a memory.

It was when he first saw Artemis practicing at the range in Ollie's backyard.

Roy was on a mission. Well, a personal one. All he wanted to do was grab some of the stuff he left at the mansion while Oliver was still at work. He would've gotten away with pulling the stealth card if he hadn't paid attention to the clear whaps of an arrow sinking into a target.

So of course, his blue eyes flitted to his window, where a clear view of the archery range was shown. And there, none other than the newest addition to the Emerald Archer legacy stood.

Instead of keeping his cool and just leaving the house, he trudged out to the range and yelled out at the girl, "What do you think you're doing?"

She didn't so much as flinch in surprise as the next arrow was released into a target one hundred feet away. "I'm practicing, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Excuse me?" The ginger was slightly flabbergasted by the bluntness of the teen. He had only met her once before in the Cave, but he assumed she was putting on a show for the others then. Apparently she acted like this 24/7. No wonder even Wally didn't hit on her.

"You're excused," She tossed out while readying another arrow.

Roy, ever known for his short temper, was fed up at that point, "Who do you think you are!?"

"I'm Artemis," She bluntly answered before tacking on, "Is your brain the size of a pea, 'cause we covered this yesterday."

The elder archer stood there for a moment before finally spitting out, "Just remember that you don't belong on that team."He swiveled on his heel to leave, but her reply stopped him.

"I'll be waiting for the day you admit you're wrong about that," The smirk on her face showed through in her voice. She was determined to make a place for herself, Roy had to give her that much.

Roy let a somber chuckle roll off his lips. Artemis certainly went out of her way to prove him wrong, that's for sure.

During Roy's period of reminiscing, the rest of the Team had finished the little circle, arranging chairs as they saw fit. Jade sat to his left and squeezed Roy's hand as means of comfort. Whether it was for her or for him, he didn't know.

"This doesn't feel right, Artemis being gone," M'gann whispered to the group in general. She then admitted, "I woke up early this morning and heard noises from the kitchen; I thought it was Artemis making breakfast like she does when she sleeps at the Mountain. Turns out it was just Wolf getting into the pantry. It just doesn't feel right."

"No, but we cannot let that get us down. We will honor Artemis more by continuing on rather than sitting and reminiscing," Kaldur provided a small mean of comfort as usual.

"About that," Wally piped up, "I-I want to quit the Team."

Everyone looked at him in silent shock. Conner broke the silence with his usual bluntness, "Why?"

"It just doesn't feel right anymore. I'm sorry, but not having Arty there to save my ass on missions, or from the rabid moldy food we never threw out. It just doesn't feel right," He motioned to M'gann, "You got it on the nail, Megs, it doesn't feel right at all."

M'gann looked at Wally, slowly thinking of what to say next, "I didn't mean to make you want to quit, Wally. You're a part of the family."

Wally sadly shook his head, "It's not your fault, I've been mulling this over for days now. It's my choice guys."

Dick, who sat next to Wally, patted his shoulder, "Are you quitting it all? Working with the Flash, being Kid Flash, being a hero?"

"Yeah, I am," He admitted, "No superspeed except for finishing essays and getting to the brownies first."

Raquel wrinkled her nose, "That's stupid, but I'm in no position to stop you."

Kaldur spoke up for everyone, "None of us can change your mind, Wally. But know you will always be welcomed back if you wish."

"Thanks, Kal, but I think my decision's final," Wally concluded with a sigh.

~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~

Artemis's civilian funeral followed the next day. The story was that Artemis was mugged, which didn't explain her disappearance for her time at the Cave, but it was the best they could do. Her few friends from Gotham Academy showed up; Barbra Gordon, Bette Kane, and Dick Grayson. Sadly, Artemis hadn't lived long enough to know that Dick was her friend in both aspects of her life.

Artemis's mother and Jade were there also. A few people from their old neighborhood, some of Artemis's old friends from Gotham North High and so on. The attendees still totaled fewer than twenty people. The archer hadn't known many people, but the ones she did, she made an impact on.

Dick shared the story of how he first "introduced" himself on Artemis's first day at Gotham Academy, with Bette cutting in occasionally. Barbra told of when she tried to get Artemis to join the cheerleading squad as a joke, all of the blonde's old friends from Gotham North laughed ridiculously at that. The image of Artemis in a cheerleading outfit made most of the processional crack up.

As Artemis's closed coffin was lowered into the ground, no one noticed the swish of blonde hair run away from fifty feet behind.

~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~

Two Years Later

News reached the hero world of Sportsmaster's death. The League wasn't able to track him down no matter how hard they tried. But someone apparently had enough of a vengeance to stay determined every day to find him. Vengeance and revenge were obvious fuel for the murder fire due to how the burly man died. There was a knife stuck in his chest with green ribbon loosely tied around the hilt. That was marked off as a call sign at first, until no one ever struck like that again. To this day, his murderer runs free. Not that the League is all too motivated to start searching for said murderer.

~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~HbaT~

Four Years Later

(Yes, two time skips just happened. You can deal.)

Nightwing was patrolling Gotham so Batman would finally get some sleep. It was a pain in the ass because Red Hood just had to make an appearance tonight. He was causing his general brand of mayhem down by Joker's current hideout. Yes, Nightwing was aware of who was under the "hood". And no, that didn't make him anymore eager to deal with Jason tonight. After all, since it was past midnight, it was the anniversary of Artemis's death and he had plans with the old Team to go visit her grave later that day. Some sleep somewhere in there would be nice.

The older vigilante's comm. produced a little static before Batgirl's voice came over the device, "Two-Face just decided it would be fun to blow up a bank. Can you take Red on your own or do you want me to send Robin over?"

"Nah, I got this," Nightwing confirmed.

"Feeling the aster and all that?" Batgirl asked

"More like all that, I just want the night to be over. Can we send a formal letter to the villains tomorrow and ask for the night off?"

"Very funny, but crime never sleeps, 'Wing."

"I get this speech enough from Bats," Nightwing complained as he closed in on Joker's hideout.

"Apparently not. Have fun," With that Batgirl signed off to go deal with her own villain.

The closer the masked vigilante got, the more prominent the sounds of fighting already were. Hood tended to stir up an extra amount of chaos when Joker was involved. At this rate, Dick will never sleep again.

When Nightwing crept in a top window of the stereotypical warehouse hideout he noticed Red Hood wasn't fighting alone. There was a woman with him. She was decked out in orange and black with a mask resembling a tiger covering the majority of her face. The woman also had shoulder blade length hair that looked like a familiar shade of blonde that he just couldn't place right now.

Then the woman spoke, more like yelled, at Red Hood, "We need to get out of here Hood, vigilantes are going to come barging in soon."

That made Nightwing's heart skip a beat. Her voice seemed so familiar, he just couldn't place it, same as the hair.

"Yeah, yeah, Kitten. We'll be out of here soon," Red Hood answered back.

"I'm not a damn kitten. For the last time it's Tigress," The harsh reply made Nightwing cringe, and he was all the way in the rafters. At least Mystery Woman had a name now.

Deciding to break up the party, Nightwing jumped down from the rafters and used one of the last henchmen as a landing pad.

A stark clap came from his left, where Red Hood was. The last of the henchman lying at his feet.

"I'd give that a seven, scratch that. An eight, I'm feeling generous tonight," Hood was ever the one for commentary.

"Like you could do any better," Nightwing challenged.

"From one former Wonder Boy to another, I'd win."

"Y'know, how about we just call it a night here and you can go turn yourself into the cops with your friend," 'Wing motioned to Tigress, "It'll save me a lot of trouble."

Hood fake-thought it over for a second, "Nah, and she's your friend too. I just don't think you've seen her in a while." Hood's slightly-insane laughter boomed through the empty warehouse.

Nightwing felt like he'd just been told a joke missing the punch line.

Tigress stepped towards Hood, "Let's just get out of here Jay, it's better to leave the situation how it is."

So Tigress knows that it's Jason Todd underneath the hood? That's interesting considering Jason doesn't easily trust people, especially after his incident.

"Nah," Hood waved her off and turned back to Nightwing, "C'mon, you can figure this out. It's been six years to the day…" The anti-hero trailed off, leaving the obvious clue hanging.

The whites of the vigilante's mask visibly widened as he looked at Tigress. Everything clicked into place. The blonde hair, the voice, and upon further examination her grey eyes and skin tone.

"But-That's not possible," Nightwing spouted out, "I went to both of your funerals, I saw your dead body, you were dead."

Hood whapped his older "brother" on the back of the head, "Should it be impossible that I'm standing here too? Wait, don't answer that. Just blame the Lazarus Pit."

Tigress, no Artemis, addressed Dick for the first time in five long years, "We can laugh about that picture now, Boy Wonder."

The same old smirk on her face made Dick's lips instantly curl into a smile.

A/N: SEE! SHE IS ALIVE! Twist ending anyone? I didn't really want Arty dead (especially after the reactions it got. For the love of sweet buns you guys were upset), so for either epilogue, she is alive in the end. In the gas category it would've been that Wally had gotten hit with fear gas when he entered the Mountain and Artemis never actually died. Just thought I should tell you what the other option would've been. Well, do you guys hate me less now? 'Cause I saw the reviews (I read them all) and a lot of you said it made you really sad….. I'M SORRY! Blame the idea fairy, she gave me this.

This is the official end of Hanging by a Thread. To think that I wrote the first chapter as a one-shot for Spitfire week on deviantArt. Back then, I never even intended to make it into a multi-chapter. But look how that turned out. So I bid adieu to my first multi-chapter story ever made. I'm kinda sad it's officially over. I know it had to end sometime, but I didn't expect it to quite feel like this.

I'm considering doing a correlating story to this, with Artemis as an anti-hero with Red Hood, so tell me if you'd be interested. 'Cause then you also get to see the rest of the Team's reactions to Artemis actually being alive!

Thank you to all you faithful readers and reviewers. Thank you to all you favoriters and followers. Thank you even to the people who bothered to give this story a shot. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. All I ask of you is that if you read this last chapter and followed the story to its end, that you leave a review. That is my one request for you all.