Three Weeks Ago:

"Cass is missing."

Stephanie didn't even look up from her Lexendo Switch. "Wow. Cassandra Cain left without warning. Film at eleven."

"This is different," Barbara said, reading information off of her array of monitors that went by too fast for anyone else. "I've always gotten a good sense of where Cass goes when she does her own thing. Sometimes I can even pinpoint down to a single city. But this? One night she just disappears into thin air."

"Then get Zatanna to cast a location spell or something. Ooh, bonus boss!"

Barbara rubbed her forehead. "I already did. Zee said that Cass's training makes her so hard to track, the best she could figure is that she's still alive and somewhere in the continental U.S.."

"That's good," Stephanie nodded. "So we know she's safe."

"Oh really?" Barbara turned her chair to face Stephanie, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Then look at me in the eye and tell me you're not worried about her."

"It-" Stephanie sighed as she put the game on pause and looked up at Barbara. "Okay, fine. She's my best friend, of course I get worried about her. But this isn't exactly the first time she's ever done this. I'm getting numb to it. Besides, it's been, what, a few days? If we go this soon and she's not seriously injured, she'll get pissed that we don't think she can't handle it. Hell, she might get pissed even if she is seriously injured."

"Don't I know it," Barbara muttered. She turned her chair back to the monitors. "I'm at least going to write a search program for Cass's image. If she gets on a camera that I have access to, I'll find her sooner rather than later. And I have access to a lot of cameras."

"Fine," Stephanie said as she turned her game back on. "But I'm still sure it's nothing. Cass knows how to handle herself better than anyone else. She'll be back in two days tops, mark my words."

(...)

Yesterday:

"I found Cass."

"Oh, thank God!" Stephanie exclaimed as she rushed to Oracle's stoic avatar on the Bat-Computer.

It had practically been a MONTH since Cass vanished! No phone call, no signal that she was okay, nothing! Over time, concern over the former living weapon grew as no sign of her showed itself. At this point, the nightly patrols may as well have been renamed "Search Every Square Inch Of This City To Find Clues About Cass" missions. And apparently in spite of Gotham having more detectives than an interstate has Cracker Barrels, they STILL didn't have the slightest idea where she went besides what Zatanna could come up with!

"'bout time," Jason muttered as he walked beside Stephanie, followed behind by Dick, Tim and Damien, the five the only ones in the Batcave at the time with Bruce off-world. Jason was the last to see Cass, when they teamed up to take down Amygdala, Cass saving him before the villain could crush his skull like a grape. He hid it well, but it was clear that being the closest one to having had a chance to save Cass from whatever happened to her right after saving his life weighed on him.

"So, where is she?" Stephanie asked excitedly. "Coast City? Dakota? Metropolis?"

"Erm... Elmville."

The young vigilantes blinked at Oracle's answer. "Elm...ville?"

"Yeah," Oracle answered Stephanie, sounding just as confused. "It's a town in Wisconsin. They grow walnuts, apparently."

Dick smirked. "The walnuts are TEARING through the hay!"

He glanced around for a response, only to receive four blank stares. "Oh, come on! MST3K? Touch of Satan? God, I'm old."

"Regardless of whether this is where the fish live or not," Oracle wryly continued, "This is where Cass seems to be. But..."

"But what?" Tim asked, putting a comforting hand on Stephanie's anxious shoulder.

"It's... well, maybe it's easier if I just showed you. That program I wrote a while back? The one that would keep a lookout for an image of Cass? It found this."

Oracle's avatar disappeared, being replaced with what looked like a KordTok video. In it, a teenaged boy in a cafeteria had two Pringles in his mouth in the crude shape of a duck's bill as he flapped his arms while making quacking noises.

"...How many views does this have?" Jason asked.

"About half a million."

"The next time Darkseid invades," Damien stoically observed, "We should just let him kill us all."

There was a muttering of agreement all around.

"Okay, here it is," Oracle paused the video, zooming into the background onto the image of one of several passing teens. This one was dressed in a black hoodie and jeans, staring intently at her smartphone as she walked by. She looked no differently than any other teen at any high school in the country, but it was clearly...

"Cass!" Stephanie cried out in relief. Then the obvious things started to kick in. "Wait - she has a smartphone, but she never tried to call us?!"

"Does Cass even have a smartphone?" Jason asked.

"She does, but she barely uses it. She likes it better when she can see the person's body language up close," Stephanie blinked and shook her head. "I don't know why she's just walking around looking at it like- like-"

"Like a normal teenager?" Oracle asked as her avatar replaced the image of Cass.

"Exactly!"

"Perhaps she's undercover," Damien suggested. "Sloppy work, if that's the case, letting this get online..."

"Cass isn't exactly the 'going undercover' type," Tim answered, his brow furrowed in thought. "Stealth, sure, but taking on a new identity that would require acting like this? And why exactly would she be undercover in 'Elmville' of all places?"

"I might have the answer to that," Oracle interjected. "I did some digging around, and I found someone in the local phonebook. A Mr. David Cain."

You could hear a batarang drop.

"Uh... Maybe it's a guy with the same name?" Dick suggested.

"Who's also apparently married to a Sandra Woosan-Cain?"

"Sandra who-?" Jason started to ask.

"Lady Shiva?" Damien leaned in, far more invested now.

"...Oh, shit."

"Wait, hold up a second," Dick held up his hands. "The two just went with their normal names? And are married now?"

"It's not the weirdest thing in the world," Tim answered. "It's usually easier to keep from slipping up if your identities share names. And it's not like the average person would recognize those names. Jason didn't even recognize Shiva's."

"I would've gotten it!"

"As for the marriage... well, this is where it starts to get creepy," Oracle began. "I checked city records, and their marriage license goes back almost two decades. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: there's an entire lifetime of documents backing up the life of the happy couple, though nothing that can't be faked - tax forms, license and registry, even-" Oracle paused to take a deep breath "-even a birth certificate for their daughter."

"What?" Stephanie's eyes widened in horror.

"Is - wait, is that why Cass is there?" Jason glared at Oracle's avatar. "So they get a little extra insurance in whatever deep deep cover op they've got going on?"

"Why would they have an op there anyways?" Damien sneered, folding his arms across his chest. "If it was in a major metropolitan area, we could at least narrow down their objective. But why would they go through the trouble of kidnapping and forcing Cain to play their daughter in Wisconsin of all places?"

"Who cares!" Stephanie waved her arms in frustration. "We finally know where Cass is, and she's under the thumb of two psychopaths! Why are we just waiting around, we have to go save her-"

"Steph," Tim reached out to hold Stephanie's hand in his own. "That's what we're going to do. But for once, Damien is right-" ("Tt!" Damien scowled) "We know too little about the situation. Cass doesn't seem to be hurt; if we run in half-cocked, we risk the chance of something happening to her. Cass needs us to keep a clear head. Alright?"

Stephanie frowned and looked away, but squeezed Tim's hand, nevertheless. "Fine."

"Okay, with Bruce off-world, we need to split the party," Dick announced. "Babs and I will stay here in Gotham, keep directing whoever stays here on protecting the city. Steph knows Cass better than anyone except Barbara and maybe Bruce, so she'll obviously go. Tim's the detective, he can figure out what's going on the easiest-"

"I'm going," Damien declared, as if he was the one making the speech. "Cain and Shiva are some of the League of Assassin's best. I know them, know how they operate. I can prepare us the best."

"I'm going, too," Jason stepped forward. "I was the one who saw Cass last. She saved my life. And you all know how much I hate owing people anything."

"...All right," Dick nodded. "We'll write some sick passes for you kids and get you there by the Bat-Plane. You shouldn't need much; I really doubt you'll encounter anything too out there in Wisconsin."

(...)

Today:

"...Yeah, I got nothing, I'm stumped," Tim threw his hands in the air out of surrender.

"Shiva... cheerleader?" Jason murmured.

"C-Cass was s-speaking full sentences!" Stephanie waved at the now blank monitors. "With-With five words or more in them!" Okay, so she was doing that more often, but still, Cass really liked being blunt. And now she was actually... sharing her feelings!

"Shiva... cheerleader?"

"I'm more disturbed by how Cain and Shiva were acting," Damien glowered an extra sour glower. "The last time Shiva wore a pantsuit, an entire Wall Street board meeting literally lost their heads over it."

"Shiva... cheer-"

"We get it, Jason!" Stephanie shouted as she turned to the stunned anti-hero, snapping him out of it.

"Well, it sticks in my mind, is all!"

"Brown," Damien grunted. "This isn't helping. You need to calm down."

"CASS JUST KISSED DAVID CAIN ON THE CHEEK! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN?!"

"There are other explanations," Damien replied, completely nonplussed by Stephanie's mini-breakdown. "Cloning, plastic surgery, shapeshifters, android replicas-"

"It can't be any of those reasons," Tim interrupted, checking one of the monitors for data. "The drone was made to scan their DNA, and it's an exact match. Even a clone would have some mistakes. This really is them, there's just something making them act like this."

"Maybe it's just Cass that's got the juju or whatever, though," Jason brought up, trying to calm down. "Maybe Cain and Shiva are still themselves, they're just gaslighting Cass!"

"And then instead of letting their guard down when she leaves, they start playing kissy face?" Tim pointed out, turning away from the screen to the group. "No, whatever's happening here, it's affected all of them. And I for one, am so glad we cut the feed before the happy couple got to the bedroom."

The monitors blinked on, each one showing a piece of a mask that combined formed Oracle's avatar. "Yeah," Barbara's uncertain voice came in over the speakers. "Not going to lie, as someone who had a playing card inserted behind my ear that made me think I was a dormouse, that was... surreal."

"Wait," Jason leaned forward. "Hatter. Is he-"

"In Arkham? Yes, having tea parties with himself as a matter of fact. Scarecrow, Spellbinder, Hugo Strange - they're all incarcerated, and have been for longer than Cass has been missing. If this is some sort of mind control, it's not any of our Gotham-based enemies."

"Or any of our Gotham enemies operating like they usually do," Dick's voice took over the monitor's speakers. "Hey guys. I'm here too. Freaky stuff, huh?"

"Tell me about it," Stephanie muttered, taking her sixth deep breath. "Did we just get sucked into Wandavision or something?"

"Well, we're in city limits," Jason answered as he leaned back in his seat. "And since none of us are suddenly wearing button downs or petticoats, I'm assuming we dodged that bullet."

"Still, I don't think it's smart to rule out reality warpers entirely at this stage," Tim pointed out. "Anyone happen to know the last time Bat-Mite showed up?"

"Yeah," Dick answered. "He only entered our dreams, but it was less than ninety days ago. Besides, this doesn't fit his M.O.. Why just Cass and not all of us? When he focuses on just the one, it's always Bruce."

"Maybe there's some sort of magic thing going on?" Stephanie suggested. "Like a really weird family curse or something."

"I asked Zee to do a detection spell of Elmville just before you guys left, and she didn't find any noteworthy magical signatures," Barbara responded. "I could try to call her again, but she's on a cruise in the Pacific by now; too far to do it again. I might be able to reach Dr. Fate or Justice League Dark, but you know how hard it is to contact those types of magic users on a good day, they're probably busy."

"What about the League of Assassins?" Jason brought up. "Cass, Cain, Shiva; they're all connected to them, even led them a couple of times. Maybe this is some sort of weird sleeper agent thing? Keep them in a safe place with safe personalities, then take them out of the toybox when they need to?"

"Highly doubtful," Damien waved him off. "For one thing, any agent so fragile that they need to be kept safe isn't worth the League's time, effort, and money. And why put them in a single place so far away from anywhere of actual importance? Why not give their false personalities careers where they'll have to be constantly moving so they can go anywhere where a mission is instead of having to go back and forth to one singular location? No, the League would never sink so much effort on something so counterproductive, it's a waste of our time."

Every pair of eyes in the van stared at Damian.

"Their time. It's a waste of their time. That's what I meant."

"...Riiiight," Dick's skepticism was obvious even through the speakers. "Hey, listen guys, I feel gross just bringing this up, but... are we sure they're all affected? What if this is Cain living out his sick fantasies? Getting his own family after screwing up so hard the first time."

"You're mistaking Cain for someone that actually has something resembling feelings," Tim said as his eyes narrowed. "Yes, sometimes it seemed like he wanted a family... but he wanted one on his terms to fuel his ego. If this was really his ideal family, they'd all be in Qurac executing political prisoners for a profit."

"Yeah, the Full House stuff ain't exactly the League's idea of a good time," Jason agreed. "If this was Shiva behind this, she'd swan dive on her sword before she'd started giving hugs and heart to heart talks."

"And we can all agree that it isn't Cass behind this," Tim continued. "So now that we've eliminated the impossible, there's only one conclusion left: Cain and Shiva are just as much victims of whoever's behind this as Cass is."

Stephanie took a deep sigh. "Doesn't feel like we've narrowed down much. We still don't know who's behind this, or what they've done to Cass, or even why. I mean, does she even remember Gotham? Remember us?"

"It definitely looks like this will take us longer than we thought," Barbara concurred. "I'll extend your sick notices, hopefully we can figure this out soon. In the meantime, we need to get more information, but do it in a way that doesn't put Cass in any more danger - we don't know how just barging up to her in full costume will affect her psyche, and that could just cause whoever's behind this to escalate."

Jason rubbed his temple. "Jesus, there's a lot to keep track. Do I need to break out a dry erase board?"

"There should be one in the drawer in the secret compartment under the monitors, packed just in case."

Jason blinked. "Seriously? I was kidding. Why would you pack an emergency dry erase board in a secret compartment?"

"Bruce wrote the list of what to pack."

"...Huh. Batman really does prepare for everything," Jason shrugged as he looked for the drawer.

"I'll try to get in close to Cass once we figure out what our next move is," Stephanie nodded decisively. "I'm the one here who knows her the best, if there's anyone out of the four of us who can snap her out of it, it's me."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Dick replied confidently.

"And hey," Barbara added with much more enthusiasm than before, "If you guys get the chance, be sure to get a photo of Shiva in that cheerleader outfit. If we break her out of this, I am holding that over her for life."

(...)

A Few Days Later:

Cass walked out of homeroom, unzipping her dark blue hoodie as she warmed up inside the school from the fall cold outside, showing off her Offspring t-shirt underneath. She kept on the dark knit cap on her head, though; Cass wasn't the most fashion-conscious girl or anything, but she knew what she liked, and she liked how the hat and the hoodie looked on her together. And if she walked into some sort of huge faux pas of the week, she knew she could count on the girl next to her to warn her.

"Look, it's no big deal," Hattie Fitzgerald said in her usual flat tone, her combat boots clomping along the stained tile of Elmville High. Today she was wearing a long-sleeved red and black shirt with a black webbing patterned skirt over ripped up black leggings. Her black hair had grown out to her shoulders along with bangs which were as straight as ever, and her dark makeup stood out against her pale skin. "I'm used to babysitting the terror twins on my own, and it's not like you were that late."

"Yeah, but I still feel shitty about it," Cass rubbed the back of her head as they headed to her locker, casually dodging fellow students hurrying along and chatting with each other in the crowded hallways. "We set it up before, and I know how they drive you up the wall. I want to make it up to you."

Hattie shrugged. "Mmm. My parents are going out again in a few days. They'll probably dump the brats on me. I could use the back-up."

"Wait, your parents are going out again?" Cass asked incredulously. "Jesus, do they even have jobs?"

"Can't all be workaholic freaks like yours, Cass."

"Hey, lay off them, alright?" Cass stopped in her walk, raising an annoyed hand in a stopping motion at her best friend. "They're not perfect anything, but I'm out every day at five a.m. on a five-mile run along with them, alright? You wanna call them freaks, you can call me one too."

Hattie raised an eyebrow. "Freak."

Cass blinked, then snorted at herself. "Yeah, okay, walked into that one."

Hattie smirked as they continued walking. "Hey, I love your 'rents, Cass. Your mom is as terrifying as I want to be someday. But seriously, how exactly does she manage to be both head of the PTA and head of the HOA?"

"She's given up sleep in favor of coffee," Cass answered without missing a beat as they reached her locker. "Okay, let me know when you need the help with your brothers. I was, what, fifteen minutes late a few days ago? I'll be fifteen minutes early this time."

"Sure," Hattie answered as Cass entered her combination in the lock. "See you at lunch with the guys?"

"Wouldn't miss it. It's pizza day."

Hattie somehow managed to sneer in a friendly way. "Of course. I forgot who I was talking to. The girl who's too cool for anything but her skateboard and dumb band t-shirts."

"Damn right," Cass grinned as she finally opened her locker. "Later, Hattie."

"Later, Cass," Hattie grinned back as she walked away.

Cass grabbed her math book out of the locker and began to unzip her backpack to put it in. Unfortunately, swinging her backpack around caused the finished homework she had yet to turn in to fall out of her backpack and scatter across the floor.

"Shit!" Cass exclaimed as she rushed to crouch down, grabbing as many traitorous papers as fast as she could and stuffing them into her backpack before the stupid air condition could suck them away.

Cass had almost gotten them all, only for the very last paper to fly just out of her fingers and directly into oncoming student traffic. Cass had just enough time to nearly have a heart attack, only for a new hand to reach out and grab it just before some idiot stepped on it, handing it to Cass.

"Thanks," Cass said as she zipped up her backpack, getting up to start walking to Algebra. Just then, someone to grab her hoodie from behind. She stumbled, almost tripping over her own feet, but realigned herself and turned around to see who helped her out and then almost made her fall over, only to find... a blonde teenage girl she had never seen before.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Weird Blonde Girl said, bringing her hand back. "I didn't mean to do that, I just... Here, let me start over." The girl cleared her throat, then put her hand forward with an annoyingly perky grin on her face. "Hi, I'm Stephanie Brown. And you are?"

At that moment, seeing this girl suddenly show up out of literal nowhere, grab on a complete stranger like Cass and hold her back, and smile one of those irritating white girl smiles while reaching out for a handshake as if nothing happened, got Cass thinking one thing and one thing only.

...Man, why do I gotta get stuck with the crazy new kid?