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Cassie couldn't believe this had happened. Against her protests her two teammates picked her to escort the guy out while they took on the mooks. All she was supposed to get Dr. Peterson out of there. That was it. Yet, somehow she'd managed to screw it up. They'd been captured and no one was coming to help. Not soon anyway. Now they were both in some kind of grey cement interrogation room, much the same as the one they'd rescued the Dr from originally, tied hand and foot to metal chairs with some kind of special binding. The coarse silver strips seemed to tighten when she struggled and was sapping her strength. Briefly she thought this must be how Connor feels around kryptonite.

"What are we going to do?" The Dr's voice was scared and his whole body was shaking. Cassie resisted the urge to roll her eyes and sigh in frustration. She knew, technically, her entire job revolved around protecting civilians, but sometimes (always) she really hated being around them.

"You keep your mouth shut, and I try to find us a way out of here." She said through gritted teeth. Cassie wasn't the best at paying attention to, or necessarily remembering, mission details. She was more of a take action kind of person, tell her who or what needed to be taken down and she'd do it, the 'why' didn't usually matter to her. But in this case, she did remember that they had rescued this guy before the bad guys could get any information out of him. So making sure he didn't tell them anything was her job now. The worst part was that Dr. Peterson looked pretty weak. Weak in the sense that as soon as a little pressure was added he'd start spilling his guts. Cassie was not going to let that happen. She was not going to fail her mission in every possible way. No, this (she was pretty sure) she could do.

Both of them looked up at the sound of the lock clicking and the doorknob turning. The man who entered the room was average. Yes, that was exactly the word Cassie would use. Good, she could handle average. Another man, tall and thin, rolled in a metal cart covered by a sheet before leaving. Dr. Peterson looked like he was going to faint he was so pale. To an extent Cassie could understand his reaction. Both of them knew what was under that sheet.

"Now, Dr. Peterson," the man said darkly, more than a hint of annoyance lacing his voice. "You're going to tell me exactly what I want to know." That was when he ripped the sheet from the metal cart revealing the assortment of knives, pliers, and rods. By this time Cassie didn't think the Dr. would even be able to speak he was so terrified. But, still, she wasn't going to let this civilian just get tortured.

"Really?" Cassie's voice made the man turn around, and judging by his momentarily confused expression he must have forgotten she was even there. That kinda pissed her off. Sure she wasn't a big hulking guy, but she was still intimidating (Probably)! She continued as she had planned though. "That's how you're going to start this?" She could tell the man was trying to decide whether to just ignore her. "This isn't your first time is it?" She asked incredulously. Now she had his full attention.

"What?" At least he knew it was an insult. Cassie was just glad the guy really did seem like an amature, otherwise he might have just ignored her.

"Well, you're going about this the wrong way," Cassie somehow was able to sound like she knew exactly what she was talking about. "You're an amature aren't you?" She gave him a once over making as if she was not impressed, which was fairly easy since she wasn't.

He turned on her and stalked over to where she was, looking down at her menacingly. She tried, and was successful, in giving a bored disinterested look.

"You wanna say that again, blondie?" He hissed angrily, giving her a front row view of his in-serious-need-of-brushing teeth. His breath was worse.

"FYI, they're called breath mints." There was that momentary confusion again. Immediately giving way to rage. Yeah, Cassie had to admit, she was great at pissing people off. At least he'd seemed to forgotten all about Dr. Peterson. It took only a second for these thoughts to go through her head, which was good since that was all the time she had before she felt the man's fist slam into the side of her face snapping her head to the side.

Cassie was stunned for a moment, not because he had hit her (she'd been expecting that) but because of how much it hurt. Whatever these binding were they were suppressing more than just her strength. She could almost feel the bruise beginning to form, but she couldn't let this be the end of it. If he thought he'd won then he'd remember why he was there, and then it'd all be over. So, she turned back to look up at him keeping the bland nonchalant expression firmly in place.

"You'd probably benefit from some hand lotion too." Yeah, he'd definitely forgot all about Dr. Peterson after that.

He hit harder the second time and while Cassie didn't want to give him the satisfaction of crying out, but a grunt of pain escaped her. Either her lip had split or the inside of her cheek had been cut on her teeth because she could taste the metallic liquid and could feel a hot trail of blood coming from the side of her mouth. The third time, she heard a cracking noise and an unbearable searing pain shot through her nose. Blood spurted from her nose, both from where it had been cut on the outside and from within. Cassie had a hard time focusing her eyes. She tried to prepare herself for the next one, but it didn't come. Well, not to her face. Instead she felt a gut-wrenching punch to her stomach making her cough violently. Her blurred eyesight recognized her own blood splattering the floor. Cassie shifted her eyes up to him. He looked so pleased with himself.

"Seriously," she coughed, blood spilling from her mouth and down her chin. "Aloe. Vera." Her voice was dark and just a little mocking.

That's when he grabbed one of the metal rods on the cart and struck the side of her arm. This time she did cry out. Why was she provoking him again? Her mind was spinning and clouded. The sound of blood rushing in her ears almost drowned out the harsh crunching sound, but she didn't miss the pain in her hand or the sound of her own screams. She was silenced almost immediately though when the rod made contact with the side of her head. Tears of pain prickled her blue eyes. Her head slumped forward. Evidently he must have thought she had passed out as she heard the metal rod fall to the floor the clanging of the metal loud and definitive. The man gave a slight scoff, and Cassie would bet he was sneering. There was a long silence, or maybe time was just dragging for her.

"Well now Dr. Peterson," his words sounded far away as did the Dr.'s high pitched whine. She had to do something or Peterson was going to tell them whatever they wanted to know.

"That all you got?" Her voice was rough and her words were a little slurred but it made him turn. Slowly, Cassie lifted her head to look at him through her blond tendrils. The pain of moving was worth it just to see his face. Shocked, confused, astonished, and angry. The fact that not only was she still conscious but that she was able to sound both unaffected and mocking made something snap in him.

In one quick stride he was in front of her, grabbing her harshly by the hair and yanking her head back his fist poised to strike. Cassie wasn't sure what she was going to do. She had no strength, couldn't move and if she blacked out Dr. Peterson was a gonner and her mission was failed. It was over, she realized, he'd won. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

"Let her go." Her eyes snapped open. That was odd. Cassie recognized that voice, although it was much harder and fiercer than she ever remembered hearing it. But that was impossible, she hadn't heard the door open (or be knocked down). Then again she was having a really hard time hearing anything. A really hard time thinking too. In a moment she found herself freed of the man's grasp. A blur of black passed in front of her and the man disappeared.

"Superboy he's out!" Funny, that sounded like Nightwing. But he never came into the field, not with her anyway. "Stop!" He sounded frantic. And then he was kneeling in front of her trying to find a way to get the bindings off of her.

"Dr. Peterson," God she sounded like drunk she was slurring so badly. It didn't help her mouth was continuously filling with blood. She probably had head trauma. "Get Dr. Peterson," she mumbled, "I'm fine." He frowned, but Nightwing left her line of vision.

And then he was there. "Connor?" His crystal blue eyes met her's briefly before he reached for her bindings. He hissed in pain when he touched them. Glancing around he grabbed a set of pliers from the metal cart. Carefully Connor used them to take hold of the bindings. He was able to unwrap the silver coils from her wrists and ankles revealing a ring of bruising and welts around them. The silver bindings reminded Cassie of a paperclip as they seemed to bend so easily. Great, she'd been held captive by paperclips. She would have laughed at the thought had the idea of it not been so painful. Once freed she tried to get to her feet, but her legs didn't seem to be able to support her, which annoyed her to no end since she hadn't even been hit in the legs! Connor caught her by the shoulders before she could fall. She groaned in pain when his hand made contact with the rod shaped bruise on her right arm. He let go of it immediately and shot her an apologetic look.

"Sorry," his words echoed and she seemed to be hearing them from underwater. He took her good arm and placed it over his shoulders, his other arm going around her waist to help her walk.

This was mortifying. Here she was having to be rescued like some damsel in distress. Real attractive. On top of that she probably looked terrible, and she did. The right side of her face was practically one big bruise, her nose was broken an angry red gash across the bridge attested to that, and blood trails out of her nose and mouth, her chin being almost entirely bloody from all the coughing. Blood matted her golden hair and her right hand was an angry red and purple; she couldn't seem to move it. Her upper right arm was bruised as well. If her face had had any blood left she would have blushed furiously. Cassie took some solace in the fact that she hadn't failed the mission this time. She had been the only one on it (at least this portion of it) and had managed to succeed. A smile made its way to her face, although she immediately regretted it and winced in pain. Connor shot her a sideways glance.

The longer she was free of those bindings the better she felt. Unfortunately, Cassie didn't possess any regenerative healing abilities, but her invulnerability dulled the pain quite a bit.

Connor led her through the hallways and they finally ended up in some kind of lobby. It looked as though a huge battle had happened. The marble floor and pillars were cracked and there was debris everywhere. There, in the room, was her team: Batgirl and Bumblebee. For some reason Miss Martian, Robin, Impulse and Beast Boy were there too. It dawned on Cassie that this mission that they had thought was simple and low profile was probably a lot bigger than they had thought. They all looked worse for wear, their uniforms were torn, they all looked sore, and some of them had cuts and bruising. Despite that, they all had an air of pride and accomplishment. They'd won their battle.

All of her teammates expressions fell immediately upon seeing Cassie. The way they were looking at her it was clear that they were shocked, but worse they looked sorry for her. She hated that. What had happened had been up to her, she didn't regret it and she would not be treated like some victim needing saving.

So she did the only thing she could think of. She gave the biggest grin she could, which was extremely painful, and gave a victory sign with her good hand.

"Mission accomplished!" Cassie tried really hard not to slur her words or let any more blood leak from her mouth. She was successful on both counts (mostly). Her words didn't exactly have the effect she had hoped for. Some of them gave a weak smile back but mostly it stayed a very grim atmosphere.

Connor led her out of the compound, the other falling in behind. Batgirl walked along side Cassie glancing at her a few times saying nothing.

"Are you... okay?" Batgirl's voice was soft and quiet. Cassie groaned inwardly. She knew what was happening. Batgirl had been team leader and under her 'watch' Cassie had been captured and ruthlessly tortured blah blah blah. Nightwing was like this too. Angsting about their decisions and feeling like any little papercut was somehow their fault.

"I'm fine," Cassie said smiling trying to sound as normal and chipper as she could. Batgirl's expression didn't change. "Really, it looks worse than it is." In fact it was very likely the opposite, and all this smiling and keeping her body un-slumped and her injured arm in a normal position instead of hanging there like the limp piece of flesh it was, was making it all worse. Cassie was glad of her powers return, without them she probably would have blacked out by now. It looked however, as though Batgirl was going to angst no matter what. They fell back into silence until they got to the ship.

Connor helped her in and got her seated in the back of the ship, and then for some reason stayed with her. He probably thought she was going to fall over again any minute. She heard Nightwings voice giving some kind of orders and she could hear the others start to chatter quietly as the ship took off. They couldn't get back to the base fast enough, Cassie just wanted a shower and then to sleep for eighty hours. Of course she'd be sent to the infirmary straight away, which would be annoying. But after that it'd be over.

"Why'd you lie to them?" Cassie looked up at Connor's words and turned to face him. She blinked.

"What're you talking about...?" She asked giving a small laugh. Ouch. She needed to stop doing that. He frowned and narrowed his eyes, as though he was saying 'don't lie to me.' Cassie sighed, "I really don't..." She looked away from him.

"Cassie."

"Because, all they seem to notice is...this," she gestured to her bruised and battered face with her good hand. "They don't seem to notice that I..." she paused. "That I didn't screw up this time" Cassie finished quietly. Okay, she'd screwed up a little. She'd got them caught. But she'd made sure he was safe! Made sure he didn't tell them anything! She chanced a glance at Connor. His expression hadn't really changed.

"Cassie," Connor placed a hand on her shoulder, the uninjured one. "You did good today. But you shouldn't of had to..." his jaw clenched at the memory. "You shouldn't of had to gone through that." She wasn't sure why but she felt embarrassed again and was glad the bruising and blood covered the heat that flooded her cheeks. What was wrong with her? She could handle a severe beating but not a conversation with the boy she liked? She looked away a small smile on her lips, and this time she didn't mind that it hurt.

Six months from now she'd be all healed. Six months from now she'd learn Connor had insisted on going with Nightwing to get her and that he'd almost beaten her attacker to death. Six months from now she'd ask him out, and six months from now he'd say 'yes'.