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


Kamikaze

Cassius's hands clenched and unclenched over and over, the goo encasing his body writhing across his skin agitatedly. Aqualad had sacrificed himself to get Manhunter through the teleporter. Now, they were going to attack the Mothership the hard way, and Cassius was the sacrificial decoy. That was fine with him. Cassandra and Rose were both gone. He'd failed to protect them. So a kamikaze strike to make the aliens pay was just fine with him.

"Are you sure about this?" Megan asked telepathically as they flew toward the mothership.

"I will slaughter every fucking one of them!" Cassius snarled back, sensing her fear in reaction to the amount of hate, bloodlust, and rage flooding off of him.

Even in his head, his voice sounded like that of a monster. But that was fine. A monster was exactly what he was, and exactly what they needed.

"We'll see you on the inside if you get blasted, Cassius," Wally said, still clinging desperately to his belief that Artemis was alive.

"I told you," Cassius snarled, voice deep, rumbling, and feral. "It's not a fucking teleporter!"

Wally fell silent and Cassius glared around at the others. They'd brought in everyone. Every hero who wasn't in the Justice league or the Team. Red Arrow. Zatanna. A new hero named Rocket. Two of Kaldur's friends named Tula and Garth. Even some surviving Shadows who were going to fight alongside Cassius. After a few minutes, they were in position. Megan and Manhunter had infiltrated the Mothership using their invisibility and Manhunter's Density Shifting, Cassius and his handful of Shadows were ready to fight, and the others were ready to infiltrate on command. Finally, Robin gave Cassius the go ahead.

The attack started perfectly. Cassius, as a mass of writhing tentacles again, hurled a small hill's with of rocks and debris at the mothership, smashing guns all across its hull. Then, as he shifted to avoid the initial volley, Clayface hurled more boulders, Professor Ojo sent a red beam of energy tearing along the side of the ship, Cheshire fired a pair of rockets that separated into a dozen smaller rockets each, in addition to the initial ones, Sportsmaster hurled several explosive discuses, and an explosives expert named Detonator fired to rocket launchers each with four rockets, each of which spit like Cheshire's. Massive explosions bloomed across the ship's hull before everyone scattered to avoid the returning fire. Then, fighters began to emerge. And then, fighters began to explode. Cassius shot through the air as a massive, winged, goo humanoid with enormous claws, and a thick, morning-star-tipped tail, smashing anything he could reach. Detonator seemed to have no shortage of rockets, stashed around the landscape. Clayface was hurling boulders in a continuous stream, and Professor Ojo was firing rapidly. The others were all doing well also, but Cassius had long-since stopped paying attention to them. They weren't his concern. They weren't his mission.

He flipped, grabbing a ship, then finished his flip and sent the ship spinning and flipping through the air before it exploded into one of the ship's guns. A pair of ships fired at him, but he flipped over the blasts, beating his wings to reach one of the two as the blasts cancelled out. Then, he kicked it, sending it crashing into the other ship, both bouncing away. The one he'd kicked exploded into another gun and the other exploded into Clayface, blasting him into a spray of mud. Cassius turned, waving a hand and scattering a spray of goo spikes into the ships flying around him and the mother ship, blasting several ships just as three began a gun run of the trees where Cheshire, Sportsmaster, and Detonator were running around shooting, managing to blast all three. Cassius ripped a gun off of the ship, keeping its power cables attached as he blasted three ships and two guns, then ripped it off the ship entirely and leapt into the open air, smashing the gun into a ship, the resulting ball of fire crashing down on Professor Ojo. And suddenly, Cassius was avoiding blasts more than fighting.

"Void, we're setting bombs on the Mother Ship's power core!" Megan warned suddenly. "You were right! There are no prisoners! Connor...Connor's gone. We're on our way out!"

"Take your time!" Cassius snarled. "I'm still having fun!"

He clapped his massively expanded hands just in time to catch two ships between them, though the resulting fireball burned his hands to ash. He reformed more from the goo forming his tail, taking off into the ships again. He punched one, sending it exploding down into another. He turned and caught one by the arm as it was flying past, then spun and smashed it against another that tried to pass. Then, he flew to the wall of the Mothership, crouching against the wall to jump off. Just as he did, the hull under him exploded, flames engulfing him and agony searing through his body, his shriek of agony echoing across their telepathic connection until every ship remaining blasted him at once, and everything ceased.


Cassius groaned as he felt feeling starting to return. He frowned. He shouldn't be feeling anything. He had been caught in an explosion. And he'd been incinerated. He was dead. So how was he feeling?

"Cassius!" Cassandra's voice said as he felt himself being shaken. "Cassius!"

His eyes slowly dragged themselves open, his vision blurred for a moment before sharpening, allowing him to see both her and Rose standing over him, backdropped by the ceiling of the Cave. He frowned, pushing himself into a sitting position before both flung their arms around him. He hugged them both back tightly, relief flooding him despite his confusion. He held them both tight against himself as his body shook with silent sobs.

"We're okay," Rose said. "We're all okay. None of it was real."

"I thought I'd lost you," Cassius said, voice raspy and quiet.

"Cassius," Cassandra sniffed, her voice as frail as his.

He remained seated there, holding the two of them, for about ten minutes before Megan, the last to be unconscious, stirred. Finally, Cassius forced himself under control, the girls both doing the same and all three wiped their eyes before looking around.

"What was all of that?" Cassius asked, noticing they'd all been laying on beds like medical tables arranged in a circle, Manhunter standing in the center.

"What happened in there?" Batman asked Manhunter.

"The exercise...it all went wrong," Manhunter said.

"Exercise?" Robin asked.

"Try to remember," Batman said.

"I'm about to have to do a lot of that," Cassius said. "Give me a pass on this one and just tell us."

Batman narrowed his eyes before speaking. "What you experienced was a training exercise. Manhunter psychically linked the nine of you within an artificial reality. You all knew this going in. What you didn't know was that it was a train for failure exercise. No matter what the team accomplished, the scenario was designed to grow worse. Still, you were aware nothing was real, including the deaths of the entire Justice League."

"That is why you hardly grieved, even when Wolf was disintegrated before your eyes," Manhunter said. "With the exception of me including Deathstroke's final words touching at a soft spot and making Rose cry. But all that changed when Artemis and Orphan died."

Cassius glanced at Wally, who looked at Artemis worriedly.

"Though, consciously, Miss Martian knew it was not real, her subconscious mind could not make the distinction," Manhunter said. "She forgot it was only an exercise, and her subconscious took control, making all of you forget too."

All eyes turned to Megan.

"I-I-I'm...I'm so sorry!" Megan apologized, guilt and shame filling her face.

"This isn't her fault!" Connor snapped. "Why didn't you stop the exercise!?"

"We tried, but M'gann had...a death grip on the scenario," Manhunter said. "Even Artemis, who should have awakened after her death, was so convinced she had passed, she slipped into a coma. I realized that I would have to rest control from Miss Martian's subconscious from within, but upon entering the reality, I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion. There was...too much...noise to think clearly...to remember why I was there. The deaths of Ravager, Aqualad, and Superboy helped, but only when the Mothership exploded and Robin, Kid Flash, and Void were silenced, did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose. To shove M'gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent. My apologies. I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous. So damaging."

Everyone glanced at Megan again, seeing her facing away and crying silently. Shazam moved to comfort her and Cassius sighed, reaching a hand up to his head as the memories from his past life he'd been able to keep at bay tried to force their way tot he front, causing a migraine instantly. Rose and Cassandra gave him concerned looks, but he simply pulled them both into a hug again and sighed quietly, shoving the memories back down for a little longer, wanting to be able to relax in the relief of the two of them being safe. After a little while longer, the Leaguers left, Connor beginning to comfort Megan instead of Shazam, and Cassius headed to his room, Cassandra and Rose making no move to leave him. So a few minutes later, they were all lying together, still holding each other for comfort, and Cassius finally allowed the memories in as he drifted off to sleep.


Leave a review.