HUGE thanks to B00kFan for giving me a heads up about the formatting issues! This chapter has been unlucky, and continued to upload wrong. Let me know if the issue persists this time, please!

winterandsnow: I'm so very sorry about teasing, I had previously uploaded the chapter before replacing it with an AN to explain why it was suddenly taken down.

Quick Note: This chapter takes place after New Years in the Young Justice universe. Mainly because it's really hard to write OCs into existing episodes.

The sun was barely up and peeking over the horizon when Alfred caught her fiddling with the coffee machine. Tools littered the kitchen island. Where Cass had found such tools was beyond him. He cleared his throat lightly as he walked further into the room. Her head shot up to stare at him with wide eyes. Alfred took that moment to study her appearance. The beginnings of dark circles were formed under her eyes and her hair was a ruffled mess. The colorful wires dangling from her mouth, the slight smudge of grease on her cheek, and the overly baggy sweatshirt that Alfred was one hundred percent certain was Bruce's didn't help the picture.

"Sup?" She questioned through the wires. Alfred picked up one of her notebooks to glance at the sketched design before turning to glare at Cass.

"Have you been up the entire night, Miss Cass? You didn't have patrol, you should be catching up on all the sleep you miss," Alfred admonished. He headed towards the stove to start preparing breakfast for the girl. Meanwhile the Meta pulled the wires from her mouth and resumed rewiring the machine.

"I couldn't sleep," she admitted. Alfred raised a quizzical eyebrow to her ducked head, but thankfully didn't ask why.

"And you decided to take apart the coffee maker? Don't you usually find comfort with more artistic means?" She flinched as the machine sparked a little.

"I do, usually. I just… needed a distraction. Art is for translating feelings. Mechanics is for ignoring them." Alfred sighed as he waited patiently for Cass to continue. He could tell that the girl had something on her mind. Satisfied with her work, Cass popped the back cover back onto the coffee maker before setting it back in its place. She started gathering her tools without looking at Alfred. "I've done some pretty bad things Alfred. I… I remember them sometimes."

"Nightmares?" Alfred questioned, turning back to the stove. He could hear Cass take a shaky breath.

"Yeah."

"Would you like to talk about them? Even Master Bruce seems to find it somewhat helpful. Or perhaps if you don't wish to talk about your nightmares then you could simply talk about anything." Cass tugged at the sweater sleeves. They sat in silence for a while with only the sizzling bacon sounding between them. Just when Alfred was certain that Cass wasn't going to say anything, she started.

"When I was little I lived a floor above Artemis in an old apartment building. It wasn't coincidence, of course. My dad actually knew her dad; they were friends, if you could call it that. I would sneak down the fire escape all the time. We had this secret little knock that would let the other know we were there. We still use it actually." Alfred placed a plate full of food in front of her before sitting across the island. "We became friends pretty quickly, and seeing our friendship our dads started sending us out on jobs together. We were actually a pretty good team. There was this one job though when we ran into someone else after the same thing." She saw Alfred's quizzical stare. "It was a simple con of a wealthy politician. Get his bank account information and drain it. Except when we finally got into his bank account, it was already empty. Artemis managed to trace the transfer far enough that we got a location. Imagine our surprise when we found a little, curly haired, Hispanic kid the same age as us. And suddenly our duo was a trio." She smiled wistfully. "Three seven year olds who thought they were the best criminals in the world." A clock chimed through the manor, announcing that it was six o'clock. Alfred got up and turned the coffee machine on.

"Do you feel better now, Miss Cass?" He questioned with a sly smirk. Cass responded with a small smile of her own.

"Actually, yeah. Thanks Alfred." Alfred nodded, pleased.

"Of course Miss. Cass. I found your story to be quite interesting. Before you disappear, I propose that you call your friend, Travis I believe. Arrange a meeting." He passed her a mug full of steaming coffee.

"Okay, thanks again Alfred." She hopped off the stool and disappeared back to her room.

"Anytime Miss. Cass," he muttered. The elder turned back to the island and gave a small sigh. There upon the island, Cass's plate remained untouched.

LineBreak

"… I'm talking about a category which is perfectly meaningful within Chinese culture itself…"*

Cass sighed and took halfhearted notes as the lecturer droned on. Her pen scribbles on the paper soon morphed into doodles instead of words. She cursed silently and tried to refocus on what was being taught. Except that she was completely lost. Apparently her little doodling had been longer than she thought. They were now on a completely different part of the lesson.

"Great," she muttered under her breath. Hopefully I can get a recording afterwards. Cass gave up trying to catch up, resigned to her having to catch the recorded posting.

The moment the lecture was done she bolted towards the back corner where the audio guy usually sat and recorded everything.

"That will go up tonight, right?" The guy gave her a long glance through his scraggly hair.

"Dozed off huh?" He questioned.

"What?"

"I'm guessing you dozed off, right? Otherwise you wouldn't need the recording." Dozed off? Cass mentally reviewed her "Dictionary of Slang", as Travis liked to call it. Her eyes widened after a moment in understanding.

"Oh! You mean fell asleep! No I didn't. Why would I?" Scraggly gave her a long look.

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Why wouldn't – never mind! I just need to know if that recording will be up tonight." Cass frowned; she honestly didn't understand why someone would fall asleep in this class. It was mostly interesting, and even though there were parts that were a little dry it would be rude to fall asleep. Wouldn't it? She made a mental note to ask someone else about it.

"Sorry, babe." Cass felt confused again, but let it go. "But sadly, we had audio trouble today. Nothing recorded." She could feel her teeth clench and grit together. Subconsciously she tugged her sleeves down further. Scraggly opened his mouth again, but Cass didn't stick around. She whirled towards the door with a scowl on her face.

"Hey! Wait up! Hey, wait!" A hand reached out to her shoulder and held her back. Cass turned around to face the person with a glare. Before her stood a short, caramel skinned girl with curly brown hair held back with a floral headscarf. She pushed the square glasses further up her nose. What surprised Cass the most though, was the fact that she didn't flinch or seemed unnerved by the glare the Cass was giving her. "Hey, I'm Celia. I heard you wanted the recording to the class. Tough break! But…" Celia ruffled through the backpack she held (also floral patterned) and dug out several papers. "You can borrow my notes!"

Cass gingerly took the papers that were being offered to her from the fast talking girl. Their fingers brushed momentarily. Weak lungs. Asthma then. Poor immune system. Likely leftover from pervious sickness. Heartbeat steady. Not scared or nervous. Large scar on back of left thigh. Likely bullet wound. Received when running away from danger. Callouses on hands from holding a paintbrush. Likely a painter then.

"Won't you need them?" A hand was waved over her shoulder.

"Actually I scan my notes really quickly after every class. That way I don't lose them."

"Oh. Thank you, then." Celia shrugged.

"You can pay me back by going bowling with me on Friday. I'm basically going to be the third wheel, and I really don't want to go alone."

"Um… sure. I'm not a very good bowler though." In fact, Cass didn't think she'd ever been bowling. Celia waved it off again.

"It's no biggie. I'm horrible at it too. Here, hand me your phone." Cass blinked at the girl for a moment.

"Why do you want my phone?"

"To put my number in! That way I can text you all the details." Celia seemed almost used to Cass's awkwardness, and didn't seem to mind that Cass had no idea why she wanted her phone. Cass pulled the cell the Bruce had given her (a gift she was entirely against, but accepted anyways) and passed to her. After several moments of frantic typing, Celia passed it back to her.

"There ya go! I see you Friday!" Cass was still trying to comprehend what had just happened while Celia left.

"Huh." She turned towards the parking lot where she knew Bruce would be waiting. (Surprisingly he'd always pick her up, then swing by and get Dick. They'd always go out for ice cream.) She still had a confused look on her face when she slid into the car.

"How were your classes today?" Bruce questioned. She turned to him with eyebrows drawn and slightly pursed lips.

"I think I made a friend."

LineBreak

Cass stared at the door in front of her, hesitating. Trav has been my friend for ages, why am I hesitating now? It made no sense, but here she was. Hesitant to even knock. Cass just shook her head. I'm being ridiculous. She raised a gloved fist and knocked firmly on the apartment door.

"Trav? It's me, Cassandra! Open up please!" She heard the locks rattling as they came undone and the door was flung open.

"Cass!" Travis surged forwards a step before remembering that she probably didn't want a hug and stepped to the side to let her in. She gave him a cheesy grin and a pat on the shoulder as she passed.

"Nice place you got here." It was in fact, very nice. The interior was completely modern with an overall black and white design. A large window made up the far wall, revealing a gorgeous view of Gotham's skyline. She smirked to herself. Travis always did have expensive taste.

"Heh, thanks. You want something? I've got food and juice if you want." She turned to him with a surprised look on her face.

"You have food here?" Trav rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I have food here. And not just takeout or frozen meals either." She chuckled a little.

"I'm good but thanks."

They both paused for a minute and simply stared at each other.

"Where were you?" Trav broke it first.

"I was in Japan." She glanced away from him uneasily.

"You know that you shouldn't go to Japan."

"I wasn't thinking straight. My head was still screwed up from the explosion." Travis scoffed.

"Obviously. Well, since you're back I've got a job for you." He moved towards the TV.

"Trav…" He cut her off.

"I thought we'd start simple you know, get you back into the swing of things."

"Trav…" She said a little louder this time.

"So I picked out a nice easy job, a simple kidnapping. Should be easy, the target…"

"Travis!" Cass yelled, and cut him off. He gave her a confused look. "I… I don't…" She took a deep breath. "I don't do that anymore." He stared at her for a moment. Suddenly his mouth twitched into a smile as he started to laugh.

"Right… You almost had me there for a moment, Cass let me tell you!" She felt the beginnings of irritation creep through her and she turned to face him head on.

"I'm not joking." Her voice was deadpan, serious. Travis's laughter slowly trickled to a stop.

"What do you mean? You're not normal now are you?" She shifted from foot to foot.

"I'm not normal, per say. But what's wrong if I was?"

"Cass, you're kidding right? You mean besides the fact that you could kill someone just by brushing your fingertips against them?" She was starting to get a little agitated.

"First off, my powers can do more than kill people. I can do more than kill people. Secondly, you always thought that I could be normal if I tried!" Travis snorted again.

"Cass, I didn't think that you would ever actually try! I was being supportive. What, you think you can just flip a switch and live a boring, normal life with no action whatsoever?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what exactly are you going to do, huh?" He paused for a moment and stared at her. Travis seemed to come to a realization. "You joined them, didn't you? You joined the heroes who pretend to make things better!" His voice was steadily rising in volume. "Why? What can you do with them?"

"I can at least try to redeem myself!" Travis gave her a twisted smile and huffed through his nose.

"You think you can right those wrongs? I was there with you most of the time! You cannot right the things you did by just stopping a couple of muggings! You are a murder Cass! That's all you'll ever amount to!" She took half a step back at the sudden onslaught of words, her mouth half open in horror.

Without a glance back, she stormed from the room. I seem to be storming from rooms a lot today.

LineBreak

Raven drove a fist towards the face of the goon that stood in front of her. His nose crunched as it made contact and he staggered back. Without hesitating Raven turned, raising her heel to slam it into the temple of the guy behind her. Birdarangs whizzed past her to impale themselves in the shoulder of the goon whose nose she had previously broken. She made a mental note to thank Robin later and returned to fighting.

She took several seconds to determine the locations of Batman and Robin. Batman was currently fighting Two-Face in an impressive hand to hand display, while Robin seemed to be jumping from head to head of other goons. She rolled her eyes and turned back to fighting her own goons. One came at her with a knife. For a moment her world slowed as she considered possible reactions.

Option one: sidestep, grab wrist, knee to stomach, flip over shoulder, heel to temple.

Option two: approximately 1.3 seconds to kick knife out of hand, palm of hand to nose, shatter kneecap with kick.

Considering that fact that Raven was still pretty mad from her argument with Travis, it's not surprising that she chose the second, more violent method. As the world sped up again, she released a side kick to knock the knife out of the goon's hand, before shoving her palm into his nose and delivering a powerful kick to the man's kneecap. Bringing him down to one knee with a cry of pain. Seeing another goon come up to her side she stopped thinking and started relying on instinct. She effortlessly dodged the punch thrown at her head before grabbing his shoulder and flinging her legs around his head. Ghost had snapped his neck with a sharp twist moments later. She was off of the man before the body hit the ground, easily back flipping towards the next goon. A single strike to his larynx allowed Ghost to stop his heart and he joined his coworker dead on the ground. She continued to fight her way through the goons, killing most of them. Somewhere along the way she had drawn a knife and G's killings became slightly messier. It didn't take long before Batman realized that she wasn't just wounding them. Her next strike that would have driven the knife into the throat of another goon was quickly blocked by a black, gloved hand. Her head whipped towards the Bat's glare. She took a brief moment to glance at the knife and the goons she had dispatched before she dropped it. It hit the floor with a clang that seemed too loud. Raven glanced around again to see that Robin was trying up the last of the goons. Two-Face was nowhere in sight.

LineBreak

"Fourteen people." Cass flinched as Bruce's voice sounded through his office.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Sorry won't give those people life again, Cass." His voice was firm and full of disappointment. "Two-Face got away because I had to stop you from murdering more people."

You are a murder Cass! Travis's earlier words rang through her head. That's all you'll ever amount to! She took in a shaky breath as Bruce continued.

"I can't spend all my time worrying about whether or not you're going to kill someone while in the field." Bruce paused for a moment. "What was going through your head?"

"I don't… I don't know." She confessed, her voice still a whisper.

"What were you feeling Cass?" She thought about the question.

"Angry. I was angry at Travis." Bruce sighed and ran a hand over his eyes.

"You're off the field for now. No patrols, no missions with the Team." Cass straightened.

"What? You can't take me off the Team!"

"I can and I have. At least until I'm sure that you've got some control over your emotions. What happened tonight cannot happen again." Cass slowly slumped back into her seat. She could see that there was no changing Bruce's mind.

"Is that all?"

"No actually…" He shifted in an uncomfortable manner and Cass was instantly on guard. An uncomfortable Bruce didn't bode well. "I want you to see a therapist. Black Canary to be specific, that way you don't have to worry about letting classified information slip."

"No."

"This isn't negotiable. Especially if you have any plans on getting back into the field." She grit her teeth and left his office, hands balled into fists at her sides.

Cass had just barely made it to her room before she exploded.

"Arugh!" She screamed before suddenly spinning on her heel and slamming her fist into the wall. Drywall cracked and a small hole formed beneath her fist.

"Alfred doesn't like holes in his walls." The small voice brought her attention out of her internal musings. Jason stood at her door in an oversized hoodie and holding a juice box. He sucked through the straw as he watched her with an unwavering gaze. She pulled her hand from the wall with a wince and cradled it to her chest. "He also says that if you want to punch something you should punch a pillow," he continued.

"And how would you know that?" Cass walked into her bathroom to pull out some anesthetic for her bloody knuckles before reappearing in her bedroom. Jason hadn't moved.

"I've punched a couple of holes since I've been here." She raised a curious eyebrow towards him.

"How come I haven't heard of this?" Jason shrugged.

"You're always hiding." She bristled a little.

"I'm not hiding." That was true. She wasn't hiding exactly; she just needed a little space after everything. Between the drama with Roy finding out he's a clone and his betrayal of the Team and League, she hadn't felt very compelled to do much more than train, school, and patrol. In fact, she'd really only seen Jason in passing a couple of times. But she wasn't hiding. Oh who am I kidding? I'm totally hiding.

"Whatever you say." Jason shrugged again before disappearing down the hallway. Cass slowly shut the door behind him with a sigh. Her head lightly thunked against the door.

Travis was right.

LineBreak

Alright! There is the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it! I plan on the Team playing a bigger role in future chapters, and I have some big plans for this story!

*Core Course: Art and Art History: Painting in China by Craig Clunas, University of Oxford