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


Secrets

Cassius watched as the sidekicks quickly took down the thugs while Green Arrow's, as of recently, former sidekick, Speedy, sent arrows with concussion grenades in place of arrow heads into the thugs' boss, Brick, only for them to do nothing. Finally, Brick hurled a massive chunk of the ground at Speedy, only for Aqualad to split it in half and Speedy to fire a smoke arrow at him.

"The cave is perfect," Aqualad said. "It has everything the team will need."

"For covert missions," Robin said, landing behind Speedy. "Ya know, spy stuff."

"And wait'll you see Superboy and Miss Martian!" Kid Flash said, skidding to a stop beside them. "But I saw her first!"

Just then, Brick hurled a much, much larger boulder at them, only for Cassius to land in front of them, goo bursting from his hands and expanding, catching it before extending back toward Brick rapidly, releasing the boulder after half the distance and sending it crashing into him, throwing him.

"Focus, sidekicks," Cassius said. "Talk about your playdate later."

"It's not a playdate!" Kid Flash argued as Speedy sent another concussive arrow into Brick, just as ineffectively as every other time he'd tried it.

"Hey, Cupid, I hate to tell you how to do your job, but do you happen to have an arrow that, you know, actually works?" Cassius asked.

Speedy huffed, firing three arrows that each exploded into a small, brief fireball, sending Brick staggering backward, but still not hurting him.

"So, I'll take that as a no, then," Cassius said.

"Shut the fuck up, Void," Speedy said, aiming at Brick again.

"Go ahead," Brick said, spreading his arms invitingly.

Speedy let the arrow fly and it stuck to Brick's chest for a moment before a massive amount of red foam began to surge out of it, rapidly encasing Brick.

"High-density polyurethane foam," Kid Flash said. "Nice!"

Speedy turned, walking away.

"So Speedy, you in?" Robin asked.

"Pass," Speedy said. "I'm done letting Arrow and the League tell me what to do. I don't need a babysitter or a clubhouse to hang out with the other kids! Your Junior Justice League is a joke. Something to keep you busy, and in your place! Isn't that right, Void?"

"Now, see, this kid knows what's up," Cassius smirked. "I like you."

Speedy huffed, turning and walking away.

"Thanks for the support, Cassius," Robin said.

"Oh please," Cassius snorted. "The entire time you were talking about it he was ignoring you. He was never going to join."

"He might have if you had helped convince him," Kid Flash said.

"This coming from the guy that still hasn't figured out that Miss Martian only has eyes for Superboy," Cassius said.

"That's not true!" Kid Flash said. "I can still win her over!"

"Right," Cassius snorted. "Anyway, I have some things to take care of, so I'll see you all later."

"Where do you think you're going?" Robin asked as Cassius turned to walk away.

"I just told you," Cassius said. "I have shit to take care of. A child like you wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Robin said.

"Okay, fine," Cassius shrugged, turning back around toward them, face completely serious. "In order for my super power to not dissolve my body into goo and remain that way, I need to feed on virgin brain tissue. Infants are the easiest, and also are much more tender than adults, as well as being virgins by default, so I'm going to find myself a midnight snack." He turned to walk away again, raising a hand. "I'll be sure to keep my communicator on while I'm raiding the NICU."

"Wha...he's joking...right?" Kid Flash asked.

"Stop!" Robin snapped, drawing a handful of his explosive disks.

"Oh, chill out!" Cassius said. "I'm fucking with you. The shit I have to do is personal, so if I have to be escorted, I'll take Aqualad. He's got the most discretion and respect, so he'll be the easiest to deal with. Also, he won't tell the rest of you, besides the League, if he feels it's necessary."

"No," Robin said. "Either you tell us all now, or you don't go."

Cassius turned, directing a cold stare, dripping with malice, back at Robin. "You try and stop me, and you die. I've followed every rule your League placed on me, but I am going to take care of my personal shit. If you want me escorted, I'll take Kaldur'ahm. Otherwise, I'm going alone."

"It is fine," Aqualad said, walking over to Cassius. "I'll go, and I'll report back to the League if it's anything they need to know about."

Robin nodded. "Fine. But I'm warning Batman about this."

"Go right ahead," Cassius said. "As I said, I'll have my communicator on, so they'll be able to track me."

He turned, walking away and Aqualad followed. They walked away from the lights before Cassius extended a pair of massive goo wings, flapping them to lift himself into the air before forming goo from his arms into a seat for Aqualad. He sat in it, and Cassius took off. Once they were away from the city, he extended goo under Aqualad's legs into a foot rest and formed arm rests. Aqualad raised an eyebrow but reclined in the chair, saying nothing. Cassius could tell he was tensed and ready to grab Cassius if he tried to drop him, but he made no such attempt. After a while, he flew down to the ground in a small town, making sure he was out of sight before he dropped off Aqualad and landed beside him, retracting his goo. Then, he turned, walking through the town, Aqualad following. They passed along under the streetlights, and Aqualad watched as Cassius passed under one a brunette, as he had known him, then passed through the shadows in between only to step into the next light as an adult blonde, now wearing a beat-up brown leather jacket over a white shirt, jeans, and beat-up steel-toed boots.

"You can shapeshift," Aqualad said, more than asked.

"Comes in handy on jobs as an assassin," Cassius said.

"But in exchange, it makes it hard to know who you are," Aqualad said.

"It helps that I didn't even know who I was to begin with," Cassius said. "My earliest memory is an unbearable agony as I was subjected to whatever experiment gave me this power. I managed to escape and the League of Shadows found me and took me in. It took me years to get them to tell me who I really was. And by that time...it was too late."

Cassius picked up a bouquet of flowers from a display outside a flower shop and Aqualad opened his mouth to scold him, only for Cassius to stop and pull a twenty out of his picket, slipping it into the mail slot of the shop's front door before continuing to walk. Aqualad's brow furrowed in confusion before he followed Cassius through the small town in silence. Finally, they reached a graveyard and he followed Cassius through it to three graves, one adult and two children, the two small headstones to either side of the larger one. Cassius knelt, setting the flowers on the grave before sitting on his knees and closing his eyes and falling still.

"A mother and her two children," Cassius said. "My first assignment in the League of Shadows. She accepted her fate as soon as I told her I was there to kill her, but she had a request. She asked me not to kill her children. I wasn't going to. I had never intended to. But then they saw me. I was under orders to kill anyone who saw me, so I didn't have a choice. She stabbed me to try and protect them, but it's hard to kill someone who's made out of living goo. I suffocated all three of them with my goo and sat them around the kitchen table, cleaned the knife, then took my goo back and left before anyone else saw me."

"You feel guilt for killing the children?" Aqualad asked.

Cassius was silent for a moment before shaking his head slowly. "I didn't. Not at first. Not for the longest time. At the time, I'd seen her in a dream, or a hallucination, and I felt like I knew her, so I thought maybe she'd recognize me, but she didn't. Later on, I discovered my shapeshifting ability and understood that no one would ever recognize me for being me, because I can be anyone. Whoever I was, that person doesn't exist anymore. Later on, a little while before Cadmus...and probably also why I was supposed to be disposed of...I forced Lady Shiva to tell me who I was. I used to be a hero. I fought against the League of Shadows, but one day I was captured and turned into...this. The pain wiped my memory, to the point that even Miss Martian can't fix it, no matter how hard she tried."

"And the family?" Aqualad asked, sounding like he'd already pieced it together.

"They were my family," Cassius said. "My wife. My children. The League sent me to kill my own family to see if I'd remember." He stared at the three names for a long moment. "Once Lady Shiva told me who I was, she asked me if I'd try to leave the League. I promised to stay loyal. I told her that it didn't matter to me who I used to be. I was a Shadow, now, so I would serve. And I also had people I wanted to protect. Cassandra. And Rose."

"Who are they?" Aqualad asked. "If you don't mind me asking.

"Cassandra is the daughter of David Cain and Lady Shiva," Cassius said. "Rose Wilson is Deathstroke's daughter. Neither of them were ever given a choice in what they want to do, and this life...it's not something that should be forced onto them."

"But you left them to work with us," Aqualad said. "How will you save them?"

"By killing their parents," Cassius said. "I've wanted to see those three's heads role since I met them."

Aqualad sighed. "You know the Justice League will not let you kill them."

"I don't intend to ask their permission," Cassius said, then sighed. "Sorry. I know I shouldn't talk about work around you. Old habits."

Aqualad raised his eyebrow. "Have you remembered something about them?"

"Only that my wife hated hearing about my work," Cassius said. "I don't even want to imagine what she'd say now. Especially given I was the one who killed her, and our children."

Aqualad nodded as Cassius stood.

"Can you keep a secret from the League and the team for me?" Cassius asked.

Aqualad's eyes narrowed. "That would depend on the secret."

"Well, keep this from the team," Cassius said. "Only Miss Martian knows, and she promised to keep it a secret. But...the main secret is...David Cain contacted me. He wants me to continue training Cassandra. I can't let the Justice League know yet. Not just because I plan to kill him but because I haven't made sure Cassandra's safe yet. But once I do..."

Aqualad turned and followed him as he began to walk away from the grave. "Why is it so important to you to save these children? Why them?"

Cassius shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe some part of me thinks it'll make up for me killing my own kids. Maybe it's something else. Maybe I just want to protect the only person I've ever met who looks at me, knows about my powers, and sees something other than a monster."

"Cassandra?" Aqualad guessed.

Cassius nodded. "Every time she looks at me...there's this...light in her eyes. If Cain wouldn't beat her bloody for it, she'd smile just for me being there. She knows what I've done, and what I am, and yet...for the first time in my life, someone looked at me like I was a person. Like I was important."

Aqualad was silent for a long while. "I will not tell the League or the team, if you can find a way to go to them to train without being caught."

"That's easy," Cassius said, holding out a hand, goo surging out of his hand and forming into a silhouette, which then transformed into a replica of himself. "It takes about half of my goo, and it won't last longer than twenty four hours yet..."

"But for all intents and purposes, he is me," the clone said before Cassius reabsorbed him.

"I see," Aqualad said, remaining silent for a long few moments. "I have a condition for our agreement. Miss Martian must verify your story. If she determines that you are telling the truth, then I will agree."

Cassius nodded and stopped in a dark backyard, forming Aqualad a seat and himself wings, then flew them back to Mount Justice. On the way, they stopped by a mall where Cassius bought Aqualad a pair of black jeans, a white Tee-shirt, and a light jacket with blue around the bottom and the underside of the sleeves, then the rest black, as well as a pair of sneakers, that way they could get some breakfast before heading back to the cave. By the time they arrived a little before noon the next day, the others were all standing by a hidden entrance that served as the front door, which was a rectangle of land that dropped into the ground to form a ramp into the hidden cave. As Cassius landed and retracted his goo, Robin walked over, wearing black jacket over a lime green sweatshirt, jeans, and upside-down triangular sunglasses.

"Where have you been!?" Robin demanded. "It's almost noon!"

"I told you I had to take care of some shit," Cassius said. "Then we stopped on the way back for breakfast."

"More baby brains?" Kid Flash asked.

"Of course," Cassius said. "Right Kaldur?"

Everyone looked to Aqualad, who stared at Cassius for a moment before nodding. "That's right. They were delicious."

"Very funny," Robin said. "Where'd you actually go?"

"I can-" Miss Martian stopped as Aqualad set a hand on her shoulder.

"Miss Martian, it is not Robin's business," Aqualad said. "He does not need to know."

"What!?" Robin demanded.

"It is personal," Aqualad said. "Unless you are going to explain everything about your own life, everything private that you wish to keep to yourself, you cannot expect Cassius to do the same."

"Yeah, well I'm not an assassin who's only working with us because the assassins he worked for before tried to have him killed!" Robin said.

"That should not matter," Aqualad said. "I accompanied him, so I know where he was. It was not related to the League of Assassins, it was, in no way, a threat to the Justice League or this team, and he committed no crimes. Therefor, you do not need to know."

Robin clenched his fists and grit his teeth before nodding stiffly. "Fine. We'll see what Batman thinks about it."

He turned, storming back into the base and Cassius rolled his eyes.

"So...uh...about that tour?" Kid Flash asked.

"Sure," Miss Martian nodded.

"You coming?" Superboy asked Cassius as they all walked away.

"Sure," Cassius nodded, following.


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