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


Passage

Cassius watched Cassandra and Stephanie sparring. Stephanie was a quick study, but she still wasn't anywhere near what she needed to be. she'd get there, though. It had only been a couple of months, and already she was able to give Tim a hard time, if not beat him. Cassandra had come a long way too. She was now able to give Batman a hard time, though Batman was still able to win most of the time thanks to his experience beating her skill, not that it looked easy. But probably the best improvement was Rose. She had begun to get the hang of choosing when to use her foresight ability in a fight, allowing her to improve rapidly as she got used to fighting while looking ahead, and controlling how far ahead to look.

The sparring match ended as Cassandra took Stephanie down. Cassius smiled just as Wonder Girl and Tim walked into the room, hand-in-hand. Cassius's eyes widened slightly, but they passed through the room without stopping their conversation, Wonder Girl talking about getting something to eat after whatever movie they were going to see.

"When did they start dating?" Cassius asked.

"Right after we stopped the MFDs," Rose said. "Tim said it was some kind of end-of-the-world thing and she kissed him, so he decided to see where it went."

"I see," Cassius said. "Fair enough."

"You're just glad he's leaving your girlfriend alone," Rose grinned knowingly."

"I'm glad I don't need to tell him to," Cassius corrected her as Cassandra walked over, smiling.

"Are we going?" Cassandra signed.

"Of course," Cassius nodded. "I was just waiting for you to get done."

Cassandra smiled and nodded and the three of them left the Watchtower via Zeta tube, Cassius flying them to the restaurant where he'd made reservations. As they flew, Wally, Flash, and Bart all streaked past below them. After about two weeks of recovery, he'd gone for a run with Bart, only to find that his superspeed had been upgraded to about level with the Flash and Impulse's. Then, once he'd gotten the hang of it, he'd retired again, leaving the mantle of Kid Flash to Bart, he and Artemis returning to their retirement together.

Finally, Cassius landed a short distance from the restaurant and retracted his wings, he and the girls walking to the restaurant together. It was nothing fancy, but it was as close to a date as Cassius was willing to allow at the moment. He had no intention of anything happening, but he'd agreed to go out to dinner with them. As they took their seats, both girls absolutely shone with excitement and joy, and he chuckled, shaking his head.


Cassius smiled as he watched Cassandra tearing through her presents. They'd managed to make it through Christmas without the rest of their friends making a big fuss over trying to get Cassius to hurry up and date them, though they did tease him about it. he refocused on the present as she reached his gift to her. She'd taken her father's picture out of her locket a few days ago, and had kept the locket empty. So, Cassius had swiped it, then suffered through making her think she'd lost it fore days, Cassandra being heartbroken the entire time. Now, however, as she lifted her locket from the small box, she glared at him instantly. He smiled apologetically and she opened the locket and gasped, then squealed and all but leapt across the circle, hugging him. Several of the others laughed, a few of them having figured out what he was doing about a day ago.

"Perfect time to kiss her," Megan said telepathically, a third hand growing from Cassius's back to flip her off.

Cassandra pulled back and put her locket back on, staring at the pictures inside of it, one of Cassius and the other Rose, before closing it and returning to her presents. Once she was finished with them, Cassius and his two clones served everyone cake and ice cream, the real one sitting with Rose and Cassandra as he ate and reabsorbing the clones through his back when they were finished.

"So, you can make two clones now?" Wally asked.

Cassius nodded, swallowing his bite of cake before speaking. "Every time I separate goo from myself, my bogy automatically regrows it. So a couple of months ago, Rose asked why I didn't just use that to stock up. Kinda depressed that in all the years I was an assassin I never thought of it."

Wally laughed. "Yeah, that seems like a pretty useful trick for you to just never think of."

"You mean like how you use your speed to vibrate your-" Cassius was cut off when Artemis shoved his fork into his mouth with a bite of cake on it.

"You told him?" Wally asked, face scarlet.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Artemis said flatly.

Several of the others laughed, Bart grinning and scratching his chin, at least until Artemis threw a scoop of chocolate ice cream into his forehead, once again making the others laugh. After a while of socializing, everyone headed home, Cassius and the girls heading to the room they were sharing for the night. As Rose closed the door, Cassius pulled Cassandra into him, capturing her lips for a long few seconds, Cassandra kissing him back happily.

"Happy birthday, Cassandra," Cassius smiled.

"Love you," Cassandra smiled.

"I love you, too," Cassius smiled. "I'm not ready yet, but I love you."

Cassandra nodded, smiling.

"Do I get one?" Rose asked.

"Is it your birthday?" Cassius asked.

"Oh fine," Rose pouted.

Cassius chuckled and kissed her on the cheek before climbing into bed, both girls joining him.

"You'd better kiss me on my birthday, too," Rose said.

"I will," Cassius said. "As long as you behave in the mean time."

"Deal," Rose smiled, setting her head on his chest.


Cassius sprinted through the streets as quickly as he could. Joker was free. He had broken out of Arkham in the middle of a riot orchestrated by a couple of the more violent inmates, and it had taken hours for them to realize he was gone. And now, Barbara wasn't answering her phone. Cassius ducked into a back alley and jumped, using a strand of goo to launch himself into the air before forming a set of wings. Once he had, he flew high, his eyes transforming into insect eyes and telescoping, allowing him to catch site of most of the others. He could see Rose and Cassandra pausing their search to stop a mugging, Tim pausing his search to take down a few Clowns who were brawling with Two-Face's thugs, denoted by their uniforms and masks being split down the center. Finally, he managed to catch sight of Stephanie, now an official member of Batman Inc. as Spoiler, and the newest member, Cissie King-Jones, who went by the moniker of Arrowette, stopping a jewelry store robbery. Cassius wasn't entirely sure why Cissie was in Batman Inc. She didn't know their identities, she had never been to the Batcave, and she was supposed to be Green Arrow's current protégé, hence the name, the red costume that was styled after Artemis's, and her skill with a bow. And yet, here she was.

Cassius passed behind a building and shifted his eyes back, flying toward Barbara's house, he and Nightwing both having volunteered to check on her at her house while the others searched for Joker, though Nightwing had been on the opposite side of her home from Cassius when they volunteered. Finally, the building came into view and he swooped down, retracting his wings and landing on the street in front of the building, running into it and up to her door, only to find Nightwing inside, desperately trying to slow the bleeding from a gunshot wound to her gut and holding her nude body in his arms.

"I'm going to fucking kill him!" Nightwing snarled.

"Priorities," Cassius said, pulling out his phone. "You stay with her to protect her." He raised a hand to his ear. "He got to Barbara. Gunshot to the lower abdomen. She's alive, and I'm calling the police now."

No one answered, but he payed that no mind. They'd all been busy, and God knew where Batman was. He'd be the one to find Joker. He was always the one to find Joker. After about three minutes, the police, including Barbara's father, the commissioner, Jim Gordon, reached the house with an ambulance and the EMTs sprinted up the stairs. Nightwing made himself scarce, and Cassius took his normal form before they arrived, having introduced himself to Jim for convenience in case he had to drop by their house for something.

"What happened?" Jim demanded.

"I don't know!" Cassius said, making himself worried, not a hard task at the moment. "I was passing by on a late-night snack run and heard a gunshot, so I came up here and found her like this!"

One of the officers took a quick statement from him as Barbara was wheeled away on a stretcher, Jim going with her. Once everything was done and Cassius was allowed to leave, he reformed his armor and wings and took off, reaching the hospital at the same time as Dick, Cassandra, and Rose, all three now in civilian clothes. Cassius retracted his armor and they ran inside, being directed to a waiting room, then sitting there and waiting for her to get out of the operating room.

"I got Joker," Batman said, several hours later. "I'll be there shortly."

"We're still waiting," Cassius said under his breath, not drawing attention to them.

"Understood," Batman said, then went silent.


Cassius grumbled, rolling onto his side, ignoring the two sets of hands shaking him. Two soft voices laughed and shook him again. Again he grumbled unintelligibly. The hands rolled him onto his back and a pair of soft lips joined to his own, drawing him unwillingly into consciousness. He sighed, recognizing the taste and feel of Rose's kiss even before he was fully conscious, and submitted partially, kissing her back for several long seconds before pressing up on her shoulder, Rose obediently sitting up out of the way. Cassius sat yup, yawning and stretching before turning to Cassandra and capturing her lips as well, Cassandra instantly returning it.

"You're both lucky it's Christmas," Cassius said as he pulled away.

"Exactly, so get up!" Rose laughed.

Cassius sighed, dragging himself out of bed and yawning again, stretching. The girls laughed and shoved him to his feet and he smiled, raising his hands in surrender. The three of them quickly went to the bathroom to brush their teeth before heading to the Batcave, then using the Zeta-tube to reach the Watchtower, heading for the tree, which was in the briefing room this year. Most of the others had gathered, and as soon as Cassius was in the room, he extended an arm, forming half a dozen goo benches for them all to sit in, everyone picking a seat. As usual, Cassius passed out the Christmas stockings first, then waited for everyone to get done with them while he ate a long stick of soft caramel lightly dusted with powdered sugar and filled with vanilla frosting, called a Cow Tale. Once everyone was done picking a snack from the stockings' candy and sorting through what else they got, Cassius began to pass out presents. He smiled as Cassandra hugged his present to her, another book on learning to speak with a speech impediment, which was basically what she had, given that even though she knew most of the vocabulary, her brain simply couldn't make her say the words. Rose, on the other hand, squealed in delight as she held up her newly-repaired necklace. Hers had broken off during a sparring match, so he'd had it remade. He'd tried to argue that he could do that just because and also give her another present, but she was having none of it.

Once presents were done, they moved to the kitchen, where one of Cassius's clones was making hot chocolate and cinnamon buns, as was tradition. Everyone grabbed a cup and Cassius's clone brought the plate of buns into the living room, Cassius himself grabbing Rose and Cassandra's personal plates, as was also tradition, along with all three of their cups of hot chocolate. Wally turned on the Christmas movies and everyone found a seat, Cassius reforming some of the goo seating for anyone that needed it, though he and his girls remained where they were. Cassius glanced around at the various couples seated around the room. Tim and Wonder Girl were still together, Wally and Artemis were still together, and apparently were considering marriage and a child, Connor and Megan were still together, after having reconciled and decided to try again after they stopped the MFDs, Nightwing and the now wheelchair-bound Barbara were an official couple, finally, and Beast Boy was now dating Queen Perdita of Vlatava, of all people.

Except, most of those couples weren't actually in the Team. Megan was the new leader of the Team, and had changed her appearance to bald with more pronounced facial features and pale blue skin, following Kaldur's promotion to the Justice League, now with the mantle of Aquaman, since King Orin retired. Connor, on the other hand, had retired, and now lived a quiet life fixing vehicles for money when he felt inclined to and keeping his and Megan's house warm for when she came home between missions. Artemis and Wally were still enjoying their retirement. Nightwing had been on a leave of absence from the Team since the MFDs, though he still operated as Nightwing, and Barbara was now officially not on the Team due to her inability to walk, but unofficially was going by the codename Oracle and worked as all things tech specialist for Batman Incorporated. But probably the biggest surprise was Beast Boy. He'd met and started a relationship with Queen Perdita sometime after the MFDs incident when she'd shown up to thank Wally for helping save the world, being a personal friend of his. Shortly after that, Beast Boy's stepfather, who'd never been a part of Beast Boy's life, showed up and tried to claim parental rights. Megan had offered to fight for custody on those same grounds, but Beast Boy had chosen to leave the Team to live with his stepfather, even though everyone knew he wanted to exploit Beast Boy's fame as Queen Perdita's boyfriend. After leaving the Team, however, he had hit it big, his fame getting him a job as an actor, and the star of a popular TV show about a crew of space voyagers with their shape-shifting captain. With his ever-increasing fame, and as one of the first publicly open meta-humans, and used his fame to put out public service announcements about missing teens who were taken in recently-formed meta-human-trafficking rings.

One trafficking ring in particular was proving to be highly efficient and dangerous. It was a run by a mysterious criminal called Barron Bedlam, and they had only had minimal success in tracking them down, which infuriated both Cassius and Dick.

"Oh, Cassius," Megan's voice all but sang, pulling Cassius from his thoughts.

He looked around at her, and she pointed over him. He looked up and saw a piece of mistletoe hovering in the air above him. "Remind me again why I'm a part of this team?"

"Because we're the only people who'll be your friends," Connor said, smirking. "Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some Earth tradition about mistletoe?"

Cassius rolled his eyes and formed himself a second upper body, both of him pulling one of the girls into a kiss, everyone in the room cat-calling, wolf-whistling, or simply cheering. The three of them ignored them, holding their kiss for nearly a minute before finally separating. Cassius reabsorbed his second upper body and both girls hugged him.

"I can't wait until you're finally ready," Rose said, Cassandra nodding in agreement.

"Soon," Cassius promised, giving them both a light squeeze.


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