I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.

Recovering

Cassius set Cassandra on her bed in the Cave gently, Cassandra's face relaxing once she was still. As careful as he was, moving around had aggravated her bullet wounds, and she was too tired to not show her pain. Once he'd set her down, he knelt beside the bed. A moment later, Rose entered with Zatanna and Megan.

"Oh my God!" Zatanna gasped. "What happened?"

"She shielded someone," Cassius said. "She's going to be okay, but it'll take a while for her to heal."

"I think I can help," Zatanna said. "I asked Doctor Fate to ask my dad about healing spells and he told me where to find a book full of them that he kept. I've only managed to learn one, and it doesn't heal instantaneously, but it should speed up her healing until the wounds are sealed, and once it's cast, it's self-sustaining, so it won't draw on my energy constantly. She'll be tired a lot, though."

Cassius looked to Cassandra, who nodded, and Zatanna walked over, glancing at Cassius.

"I need to be able to see the wounds," she said.

Cassius nodded, lifting Cassandra's shirt carefully. As he'd expected, Zatanna and Megan both gasped when they saw her scars. After a moment of staring, Zatanna cleared her throat and held out her arms, chanting a short spell. Cassandra's wounds glowed a faint gold for a moment before the light faded and Zatanna sighed.

"There," Zatanna said. "That should do it. I think they should be healed in about four days or so, but it might be a little longer."

"Well, the original timeframe was about four weeks, so I doubt your guess being a couple days off will be anything to worry about," Cassius said. "Thank you."

Zatanna nodded.

"Thank...Zatanna," Cassandra said.

"You're welcome," Zatanna smiled.

Megan frowned. "I thought you said she just didn't know English. She sounds like she's partially incapable of speech."

"Well, the parts of her brain meant to control the ability to speak instead developed to interpret body language in place of speech," Cassius said. "I'm slowly teaching her to speak, and I can, given enough time, but in order to do it so that I don't risk her ability being weakened, I have to teach her the hard way, which means teaching her brain a new function. Imagine that you're trying to learn how to use your powers for the first time. You aren't able to use them every time you try, or get them right every time, right?"

"No," Megan said. "I suppose not."

"Exactly," Cassius said. "And then add on top of that that while I'm teaching her how to speak, I'm also trying to teach her one of the most complex languages on Earth, and it's going to take some time."

Megan nodded. "That makes sense."

"By the way, where is everyone, anyway?" Cassius asked.

"Robin's still in Gotham, and Wally, Kaldur, and Artemis all went to do a stakeout on Sportsmaster, along with the team's newest member, Red Arrow," Megan said.

"Oh, Artemis is not going to enjoy this mission," Cassius said.

"She seemed like she was unhappy Red Arrow joined," Zatanna said.

"She probably feels like she's not going to have a place on the team since he's an old friend of Wally, Kaldur, and Robin, and a more experienced archer," Cassius said. "I'm sure Wally will cheer her up."

"Wally?" Zatanna frowned. "I thought Wally like Megan."

"He did," Cassius said. "But now that he knows she's off the market, he'll have to look elsewhere. Which means he'll have to finally admit his feelings for Artemis."

"How do you know he has feelings for Artemis?" Zatanna asked.

"Did you hear about our virtual exercise?" Cassius asked.

"The one that went wrong?" Zatanna asked. "Yeah."

"When Artemis died during that, Wally flipped," Cassius said. "Full denial."

Zatanna grinned, shaking her head. "I'll have to start teasing him to help him along, then."

"Not too much," Cassius said. "We don't want him to be ashamed, just embarrassed into admitting it."

"Got it," Zatanna smiled. "Well, we're supposed to be figuring out what Red Tornado does in his apartment. Want to come?"

"I'm going to stay with Cassandra," Cassius said.

"Same," Rose nodded.

"Alright," Zatanna said. "Let us know if you need anything."

"We will," Cassius smiled. "Thank you again."

She nodded and left with Megan, Cassius and Rose settling in to stay with Cassandra and do whatever she needed, whether it was getting her food, helping her sit up to eat it, or help her to the bathroom. She'd tried to argue she didn't actually need them to wait on her so much, but they'd both refused to listen to her.

Cassius walked out into the briefing room to see what the yelling was about just in time for Red Arrow to hold up a tracking device.

"Her tracer," Wally said. "So? Cheshire ditched it!"

"No," Red Arrow said. "Artemis ditched that." He gestured at a second tracking device Kaldur was holding. "To send us on a wild goose chase. She put this one on Cheshire!"

Wally stared at it before turning to Artemis. "Artemis?" His eyes narrowed when she didn't answer. "Are you that freaked out about Arrow joining the team you had to prove yourself by bringing down the bad guys solo? Please, tell me I'm wrong!"

Artemis inhaled, preparing to defend herself, only to sigh, dropping her gaze to the floor.

"Well, nice going," Wally said. "What you proved is that you're insecure and selfish." he tossed a sai he was holding to the floor at her feet. "Keep the sai." he turned, taking the tracer from Red Arrow. "This is the right souvenir for the mission."

"So how will you betray us next time?" Red Arrow demanded.

"Enough!" Kaldur said. "If making a mistake was a betrayal, we would all be traitors," Kaldur said.

"The only mistake was letting Red Arrow onto this team," Cassius said. "He's a toxic influence and he's going to cause everyone to turn on one another. One mission and he's already got Artemis hating herself and Wally so mad he's probably not going to talk to anyone for a few days."

"That's enough, Cassius," Kaldur said.

"No, let Traitor Number Two speak," Red Arrow said. "I'd say let the other two traitors he brought back from the League of Shadows with him speak, but from what I've heard, only one of them is actually smart enough to do that."

Cassius snarled angrily, but refrained from ripping his head off. He could see Red Arrow's arm was tensed in preparation for a fight, and he'd rather not humiliate him and get himself kicked off the team. Not yet. There'd be time to fight him during their first sparring session with him.

"That is enough!" Kaldur snapped. "Cassius is not a traitor, and neither are Cassandra or Rose. You may have your opinions of this team and the members on it, as well as your reasons for joining it, but you will not antagonize the other members of this Team. If you prove to be doing more harm to this Team's cohesion than you are doing good on missions, you will be removed from the Team. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly," Red Arrow growled.

"Good," Kaldur said. "Now, I must report to Batman. The rest of you, get some sleep."

Red Arrow stormed off immediately, and Artemis turned to leave as well, obviously wanting to be alone, only for Cassius to follow her.

"What do you want?" Artemis asked. "Are you going to try and tell me how bad I fucked up too?"

"No," Cassius said. "You've already told yourself that a million times. I'm here to give you advice."

"About what?" Artemis asked.

"Red arrow's here to find the mole," Cassius said. "By trying to prove yourself and ending up causing the mission to fail, you've proven your guilt to him. Kaldur might also suspect you now."

"Great," Artemis said. "So, what, I'm screwed?"

"Not yet," Cassius said. "You won't be kicked off the team over this. And you can still win Wally back."

"Why would I care what he-"

"Artemis," Cassius said flatly, smirking knowingly. "Let's stop pretending that we don't both know that you and Wally are both desperately in love with each other and are just both too afraid to do anything about it."

Artemis glared at him. "I am not in love with Wally!" She sighed. "Maybe I have a little bit of a crush. At most."

Cassius rolled his eyes. "Sure. Anyway, you can still make things right. But in order to do it, you have to be honest with them. All of them. You have to tell them who you are, specifically who you're related to, and you have to tell Wally how you feel, preferably somewhere private so he doesn't feel ambushed or pressured to say anything specific."

"I...I can't," Artemis said. "I..."

"They wouldn't throw you off the team," Cassius assured her. "Wally might not feel the same, but you wouldn't get kicked off the team. And then your family wouldn't be able to hold it over your head as blackmail."

"What about you?" Artemis asked. "When are you finally going to tell the League who you really are?"

"Soon," Cassius said. "Some memories are still coming in, and I want to remember as much as I can before I tell them. And...I don't want them to change how they treat me based off of who I used to be. I want to earn their trust by being who I am now, not have them give it to me because of who I used to be. I think only Batman would still distrust me, and I'm not even sure about that."

"Not all of them distrust you," Artemis said.

"I know," Cassius said. "But...I've gotten used to how things are. I'm not ready for it to change again."

Artemis nodded. "No matter who you were, you're still you, and you're still a good man. At least, you are now. Early Void, not so much."

Cassius chuckled. "On that we can agree. Anyway, think about what I said. I'm going to head back to Cassandra."

"Speaking of crushes," Artemis said.

"It's not like that," Cassius said flatly.

"Not from your side," Artemis said. "But you must have noticed that both of those girls are practically in love with you."

Cassius sighed heavily, then nodded. "I know. I'm going to try and change their minds."

"Why?" Artemis asked.

"Well, for one thing, I'm more than fifty years old, give or take," Cassius said. "For another thing, they're nine."

"One, you can be as old as you want," Artemis countered. "And two, both of them are much more mature than nine. If I had to gage them, I'd say they were at least fifteen in maturity. That tends to happen when you grow up with Slade Wilson and David Cain as parents."

Cassius sighed. "What're you trying to say? I should give them a chance?"

"No," Artemis said. "I'm just pointing out that your arguments are both invalid."

"Them being nine years old is not invalid," Cassius said. "And I'm not someone that I want them having feelings for. So I'm going to try and change their minds."

Artemis nodded. "Good luck. Girls aren't that easy."

Cassius snorted and walked away, holding his hand over his shoulder in farewell.

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