Regardless of what anyone else in her class thought about it all, Mina Ashido was loving this school exchange thing. It was so cool getting to learn stuff from other teachers, but even better was all the new classmates! Of course, she'd lucked out with her partner, Cassandra Sandsmark, who preferred to be called Cassie. Not only was she really pretty, with long blonde hair combined with a mediterranean complexion, but she was super nice too! The two had bonded a lot in just the two and a half weeks they'd gotten to spend together so far, and whenever Mina thought about the fact that Cassie was going to be heading back to America in just a week, she couldn't help feeling sad.

But Mina was nothing if not a perky optimist, so it was hard for that frown to stick with her. It was Wednesday morning, and like every weekday morning lately, she was heading to Cassie's dorm to hang out before class and head to their homerooms together. Usually, Mina was the type to want to sleep in, but she was always too excited at the prospect of hanging out more with her new best friend to snooze away the hours. Already dressed in the UA school uniform, Mina reached Cassie's door and knocked. It was only then that she heard Cassie talking on the other side of the door, what she was saying inaudibly muffled by the door between them.

Mina actually considered taking five to give Cassie some space, but before she could the door opened and she saw Cassie, still wearing her PJ's (which were Wonder Woman themed, so cute), with her cellphone held up to her hand. She looked at Mina with a look that said, 'I'm so sorry, just give me a minute,' while her actual mouth said, "No, I can't just go to Canada right now." Then, after the person on the other end clearly must have said something, Cassie added, "Because I'm at school!"

Feeling suddenly awkward to be in the room while this was going on, Mina moved over to sit on Cassie's bed, and followed what Cassie had done, by inaudibly mouthing her question. 'Family trouble?' The meaning must have come across correctly, because while Cassie was listening more to whoever was on the phone with her, her eyes were on Mina while she nodded her head.

As fun as Cassie was, it had become pretty damn clear to Mina that she had a rough time with her family. The only one she talked about with anything like unconditional love was her mom, who was as Quirkless as Cassie herself. But thanks to who her biological father was, Cassie also had a really complicated other side to her family, and they were all mythological figures. Mina had met a few of them, as they seemed to visit their mortal sister with no regard to her personal privacy. They hadn't seemed awful, necessarily, and it was clear Cassie did still care for them, but they were also a source of stress for her. Mina didn't know all the details there, but she knew enough people, at school with her now and back in middle school, with difficult home lives that she'd learned not to pry unless offered consent.

Apparently, whoever was on the phone with Cassie had been going on one hell of a rant, because it was nearly two minutes later when Cassie finally got to get a word in. "Okay, I get it, it's important, but I still can't drop everything to do this. Either find another Hero to help, or accept that I won't be able to get around to it until December." There was a short pause, and then Cassie forcefully said, "Okay, thanks. Love you, bye." From the finality of her tone, it seemed to Mina that was Cassie ending a conversation before the other person was ready. After letting out a long sigh, Cassie focused on Mina again and fell dramatically onto her bed, face first, behind Mina. "I hate everything."

"Even me?" Mina asked, giving her friend an overly exaggerated pouting face, her eyes on the verge of tears. Cassie only growled in response, which Mina's brain translated as, 'No, I don't hate you, just everything else.' Putting away the overdramatics for a second, Mina genuinely asked, "Do you want to talk to me about it?"

At first, all Cassie did was groan into her comforter, but then she got up and moved into her room's bathroom, and Mina realized she was starting her morning routine. "That was my brother, Hermes." He had yet to visit while Cassie and Mina were hanging out together, but Mina had done a little digging into Greek Mythology lately, and so knew she was talking about another of Zeus's kids, the God of Messengers, Tricksters, and about two dozen other things. "Apparently, someone stole some ancient thing my Dad had lying around in a vault somewhere, and they decided to foist the task of getting it back to me." Then, after a short pause, she added, "Can you throw my school clothes into the bathroom? They're sitting on my dresser."

Nodding, Mina grabbed the described stack of garments and tossed them into the bathroom, where they landed on the counter. That done, Cassie closed the door most of the lay, leaving it cracked so they could still talk while she got dressed. "That's pretty crazy. But, why do you have to do something about it? I mean, they're all Gods, right? Can't Zeus just pummel the person with lightning bolts? Or Hermes use his super-speed?" After all, humans beings with Quirks were one thing, but Mina had actually been in a room with some of these Gods. They could say what they wanted about them as relatives, but in terms of power, just their presence made it clear to Mina how far apart they were from humanity. The fact that Cassie's mom had actually slept with one was crazy.

Towards Mina's question, Cassie made a sound in the other room that sounded like the grunt of frustration of someone being asked a question they'd heard a lot. "Apparently, my family shouldn't even be around anymore. They're something called the Second World, and now is the age of the Fourth World, whatever that means. Or maybe it's the Fifth World now? I've got no clue. But it means that all the old pantheons are supposed to either be dead or laying low. So if they have to act, they need to do so through mortal agents. Heroes. The Gods can give gifts or play the odds against a Hero, but they can't directly intervene. The closest to that is sending monsters to fight the Heroes."

"Alright," Mina said, taking the words in and trying to make her still not totally awake brain digest all of them. "So what you're saying is, your family can't do anything about this, you have to?" It didn't seem right to her. "That sucks."

A bark of laughter came from the bathroom, and Cassie exited back into her main bedroom, dressed and ready for school. They still had like ten minutes before they had to leave, so Cassie sat next to Mina on the bed, and they continued the conversation. "That's not exactly right. There are other Heroes with blood ties to the Olympians, I'm just the correct favorite. But I ended up agreeing to it, so I'll be spending part of my Winter break on another quest." When Mina made a face at that, Cassie tried to spin it. "Don't worry, I'm pretty used to this stuff. And...it's better than the alternative."

That made Mina raise a purple eyebrow. "What's the alternative?"

Cassie flinched, and though she looked like she didn't want to talk about this particular part of her past, she also looked like she accepted it as an inevitability. "Not all of us Demigods are Heroes, you know. We have a choice. I didn't decide to be one until I was 11. But before that, I was slotted into another role. If we're not Heroes, we're another thing to be taken by others. A piece in the political game between Gods, to be ransomed off or rescued. I'd been kidnapped fifteen times before I finally decided to become a Hero."

All of that left a bad taste in Mina's mouth. Sure, she'd been born with a cool Quirk, but becoming a hero had been her choice, not anyone else's. She'd done it for her own reasons, out of a personal drive to better herself. But for Cassie, it sounded like it was a choice between doing that or being a damsel in distress. "What finally changed your mind?" she asked Cassie, hesitantly.

But to her surprise, the question brought a smile to Cassie's face. "When I was 11, I was kidnapped by a cult worshipping the Titans, hoping to get them freed. All the other times I'd been saved, I'd barely gotten to know the Heroes who'd helped me. To them, I wasn't family, I was just something that had to be returned to where it should have been. But that time...Wonder Woman came to help. She didn't just fight off the cult and save me. She talked to me. The entire trip home, she treated me like a person, and I got to know her a little just as she got to know me. She's why I'm a Hero. I want to do for others, what she did for me." When Cassie turned to see Mina, she was surprised to see the pink girl was crying like a fire hose. Smiling, she rose from the bed. "Dry your eyes, we've got class. Let's go be Heroes."

But just as Cassie was walking away, Mina reached out and grabbed the back of her shirt, stopping her. She turned to look at Mina, whose tears had slowed to a slow trickle down her face. "We can use Mal's teleportation Quirk to meet up in December," she told Cassie who was stunned to hear it. "I want to go with you, on your quest. Let's go be Heroes together."

After classes were over for the day, Cassandra Wayne followed her assigned partner here in Japan, Shoto Todoroki, to a hospital. Of course, Cass did not necessarily identify him in her head by his name. As someone who didn't even really think in language, Cass's way of thinking of him, or anything really, was impossible to describe to anyone for whom verbal language was the primary vector for communication. Even if Cass had perfected speaking or writing any of their languages, actually communicating her experience would be fruitless. Still, she did understand why they were there, as Todoroki spoke to the receptionist, telling her who they were there to see.

The words themselves that came out of Todoroki's mouth might as well have been gibberish to Cass, who could barely register certain words in English. But even if she could not pick out the words the two people were using, her ability to read body language allowed her to understand what was being communicated anyway. Todoroki held himself stiffly, he was burdened with a lot of stress. From what Cass understood about his relationship with his mother, she could understand why. Together, they walked through the building until they reached the room where Rei Todoroki stayed. The woman was in bed, and while she was beautiful, with the same softly cast features her son had interhited, Cass could see a weariness in her, one she was clearly trying to hide as she shared a greeting with her son.

Shoto introduced Cass to his mother, and the reverse. Once it was Cass's turn, she bowed her head slightly in Rei's general direction, while Todoroki explained to his mother how Cass was different from most people. When she heard, Rei's way of looking at her changed: she pitied Cass. She tried not to let it sting. Many people did so. Regardless of how capable, how successful, how strong Cass was, many would always pity her. Still, she was grateful that Todoroki added an explanation to his mother, one that told her not to move exaggeratedly on her behalf, that it was the equivalent of speaking slowly to someone in a language they didn't know. It made Cass happy that Todoroki had accepted who she was, and had no problems advocating for her to others.

They made a little small talk, then Rei asked Cass how she was liking Japan so far. Working hard to remember how to make the needed sounds, Cass told her, "It is good." She knew it must have sounded odd, people always looked at her weird when she did try to speak, and it must have been even odder, since she was trying to talk in English. Still, Rei calmly accepted the answer, and Cass retreated into her own thoughts.

Soon after starting the school year, her adopted father had made a visit to the school, flagged by J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. Bruce had explained to her that they'd been doing research on the brain scans she'd provided shortly after entering his care, and they now thought it was possible for a telepath, such as the alien in the room, could enter her mind and make it easier for her to understand language, rewire her brain to undue the 'damage' done by her father.

While many thought her Quirk was what was responsible for her lack of language, Cass and a few others knew that wasn't the case. After all, her father had a similar Quirk, as had the many siblings she'd had over the years. But that was only half the equation. To truly bring out the strength of the Quirk, they had all been raised with no access to language of any kind. Any that began exhibiting signs of developing language were disposed of. As far as Cass was aware, she was the only survivor of the experiment.

She'd made clear to Bruce Wayne that she would consider it, but even after all this time the question sat uneasily with her. On the one hand, it was true that her current state was due to trauma. She couldn't deny that. What her father had done to her was monstrous. She had the scars to prove it. Changing her mind would make her life much easier, even if it had the risk of hampering her fighting abilities. But that was the question, wasn't it? Was there anything wrong with her to fix?

To be sure, her mind was different from others. But who was to say they were correct in how they saw the world, and she was wrong? Was it simply because she deviated from the norm that her uniqueness had to be removed? The question ate away at her, the pros and cons of what could be floating by. If she stayed the way she was, Cass was confident in how she could live her life. Trying the procedure meant stepping out, into the unknown. Prior experience had taught her how dangerous such a path could be. But also, how fruitful.

Suddenly, Cass realized Todoroki had been trying to get her attention. "Sorry," she apologized, the word clumsily falling out of her mouth. He explained he wanted a little time along with his mother, if that was okay with her. Cass nodded, and left the two to themselves. It made her smile. Todoroki had a lot of difficult feeling, a lot of trauma, wrapped up with his mother. But he was still trying to make it work.

"Cassandra." The voice came from down the hall, to the right. Even though it had been nearly ten years since she'd last heard that voice, and even longer since she'd heard it say her name, Cass still knew the voice of David Cain. Her body tensed, and she turned to see her father standing there, fifteen feet apart from her. He asked her how she was doing. She didn't respond, except to change her stance to one ready to fight.

Her father sighed. He looked much the same as he had in her youth: tall, physically imposing, with facial features so sharp and hard it was like his face had been carved from a mountainside. The only sign of time passing was the grey hair that had begun to dust his originally midnight black hair. With a flash, Cass remembered how he'd held her down, how he'd shot at her, how he'd beat her.

He said something else...he'd just come to see her? Cass laughed, and it was clear that David didn't like that. His jaw set in the same way it did before it was time for him to punish her for misbehaving. But then, the tension ebbed away, and it looked like David was looking at her with something warmer. He asked if she wanted to go home with him. He told her something she thought was a lie. But even then, she still couldn't help thinking of the times when it was better. When he'd hugged her. When she'd felt warm, and safe, and loved in his arms.

But that was a long time ago. Cass shook her head. She had a new life. Bruce Wayne was her new father, one who had shown her more compassion and more love than David Cain ever had. Dick Grayson wasn't just her teacher, as a fellow adopted child of Bruce Wayne, Mr. Grayson saw Cass as a younger sister. Young Damian was growing up with her as his older sister. And Stephanie...Stephanie was the best friend Cass had ever made. "I..." she told her father, making sure to carefully enunciate the words. "...am Cassandra Wayne." Anger flashed in his eyes, and for a moment she was sure he was going to draw a gun on her.

A voice came from behind her, and Cass turned to see Todoroki, looking at her biological father. The young hero's expression was cold enough to freeze the air into ice, and she could tell from the way his body was set that he was ready to use his Quirk at a moment's notice. David Cain likely knew the same from his own Quirk, but he also seemed to know who this was, and walked away rather than risk a fight. "Are you okay?" Todoroki asked her, once they were both sure he was gone. Then, he asked if that was her father.

She nodded, then verbally told him, "Yes. I am fine. Thank you." The two left the hospital, and once home, she did her best to communicate what had happened to Mr. Grayson. The teacher took the matter very seriously, and told her he'd let the Justice League know that the known assassin slash supervillain David Cain was in the area. Then, he transitioned from Mr. Grayson to Big Brother Dick, and asked if she was holding up alright. She was thankful for the concern, but made it clear she would be alright. That night, Cass watched movies with Stephanie, ate ice cream, and did everything she could to avoid thinking about the man who'd met her in the hallway.