Red Arrow and Cheshire

Red Arrow and Cheshire.

Red Arrow and Cheshire are former enemies that eventually married.

History

Broken arrow

Cheshire's father, Sportsmaster, was Red Arrow's "handler" for the League of Shadows. The young archer was actually a clone of the original Roy and his mind was filled with command phrases that would trigger certain actions. Some would make him undertake actions, others would freeze him to allow for further programming, and some were subconscious drives—the zeal to get into the Justice League and distrust towards newer members of the Team.

And that was where Cheshire came in. During their first contact, she baited him, flirtatiously referring to their meetings as "dates". She easily goaded him to wherever the League of Shadows wanted him. Distracting him (and by proxy, the rest of the Team) with a search for a mole, Cheshire focused her attention on her sister Artemis. There had already been animosity between the two archers in the Team, and Cheshire made sure that it was mutual. In her sister's presence, she continued her flirting, and even kissed him when she had him pinned down. This did not sit well with Artemis.

When Red Arrow's part as the mole was played, most of his programming stopped working and it was removed entirely by Miss Martian.

The hunt for Roy

For the next four years, Red Arrow's life was taken up with finding Speedy, a task he had to do alone after all the others gave up. He kept coming across Cheshire, and the perverse pleasure she got from thwarting him confused him. He realized he could use it to infiltrate the Shadows and the Light. It took a while, but it worked. Cheshire convinced Sensei, arguing that he had gone rogue and was a freelancer now. The two were paired up, doing a number of security details for LexCorp shipments. He did not learn much of Speedy's true whereabouts during this time.

Being close to him made Cheshire drop her guard, allowing him to see through her façade. Her upbringing had made her cold and distant, protective of her true self. Any psychopathy was merely a mask, the result of her upbringing. Feelings were mutual, to the point that she saved him when his cover was blown. They fled to Fort-de-France together and could now focus on finding Speedy again. Together, they traveled the world looking for him, to no avail.

Marriage and separation

Roy and Jade married in late 2014 or early 2015, but it didn't last. They argued a lot about Roy's obsession. Around February, after learning she was pregnant, she left him. She felt his obsession made it impossible for them to create the right environment to raise a baby.

However, her decision to leave only made things worse. Roy's mental and physical wellbeing deteriorated. Cheshire intervened, showing him his daughter Lian and telling him the girl needed a father. In order to stop him from self-destructing, she had called in all the favors she had to find the location of Speedy. They found him in Tibet, but as soon as Speedy was repatriated, Cheshire disappeared again.

Always Cheshire first

Jade says goodbye to Will.

Red Arrow, now living his own life as "Will Harper", retired from heroics and focused on being a father, raising Lian with help from Artemis, who moved into a spare bedroom. Jade missed Will and Lian, but felt Lian was better off without her. Her sister berated her for it during a mission in Detroit, but she declined—she would always be Cheshire first. She was not made to be a mother. She did check up on Lian one last time, as a way of saying goodbye. Will spotted her and urged her to come back, telling her that he and Lian needed her, but she wouldn't budge. She said goodbye and told him to move on.

Cheshire went on to mount a seemingly suicidal attempt to take down the former leaders of the League of Shadows, supposedly in an attempt to end the contract on her life for betraying them. She was pulled back by what she thought was an emergency call about Lian, but was in fact her sister asking for help. Cheshire ultimately obliged her sister, and in the process was convinced to try going back to Will and Lian. But during the video call to arrange this, Jade saw Lian wearing a mask based on Cheshire's. Horrified, she fled and mounted another suicide mission on Infinity Island. Artemis once again stopped her, and Jade finally admitted that she wouldn't go home because she was afraid of Lian turning out like her, and because by going back she would be pulling Will and Lian into her cage with her. Sensei and Ra's al Ghul admitted that the Shadows had conditioned her, and offered her help to overcome her experiences with the League. Jade chose to stay and accept their help.