I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.
Problems
Cassius flipped over a thief and twisted, slamming an aerial roundhouse kick into his face, dropping him. As he did, the second thief raised his shotgun, only for Cassandra to swing down from above, once foot hitting the shotgun and knocking it aside before Cassius could be shot, her other foot slamming into his head and knocking him out as well. Cassius nodded, smiling, and cuffed both as police sirens began to wail. They turned, disappearing into an alleyway and both returned to the top of the buildings, rejoining the others in time for Batman to turn and leave, heading for another crime. They followed, reaching a bank as several thugs came out of it with trash bags of money. Batman pointed to Rose and Cassandra and both nodded and dropped, swinging down to the thugs and dropping them all in seconds before zip-tying them all and returning. After a few more hours of patrolling, during which they stopped two muggings and another robbery, they all headed back to Wayne Manor.
"Get changed and cleaned up," Batman said. "You're all heading on a mission in the morning."
"Understood," Cassius nodded.
They all headed upstairs, taking turns showering and changing before heading to the Cave. They spent a little while catching up with the others who were there, since they'd been away for weeks, working with Batman. Finally, they all headed to bed. However, after a couple hours, Cassius stirred, frowning as his brain struggled to get going before hearing Cassandra sobbing. He launched himself out of bed and ran to her room. However, when he opened the door, she was curled into a ball, sobbing, but asleep. He sighed. It had been a long time since she'd had a nightmare. He walked into the room, sitting on the side of the bed and gently shaking her awake. She jerked, looking around wildly before pushing herself up and pressing her face into his chest, hands balling in his shirt as she sobbed, Cassius holding her.
"It's been a while since you had a nightmare," Cassius said. "Was it your father?"
She nodded, and he sighed, tightening his hold on her and curling around her slightly, stroking his hand up and down her back comfortingly. After a few minutes, Megan stepped into the doorway, her worried expression softening when she saw him.
"I've got it," he said as he felt her mind connect to his.
Megan nodded and closed the door. After a little while, Cassandra had cried herself to sleep and he lay her down gently, only for her to instantly grab his hand, looking up at him through fresh tears. He smiled.
"I'm not going anywhere tonight," he said."
She nodded and he pulled the covers back, climbing into the bed beside her and pulling the covers over them both before taking her into his arms again, Cassandra once again burying her face in his chest, though not sobbing this time. He smiled, stroking her back again and closed his eyes, waiting until he felt her drift off to allow himself to do the same.
Cassius watched Robin and Megan flipping through the air. They, Artemis, Red Arrow, and Connor were all posing as a trapeze family called the Daring Dangers while they went undercover in a circus that had stopped at three cities, each stop coinciding with a security tech firm being robbed. Cassandra, Rose, and Cassius were all a part of the circus as a person-juggling brother and sisters. It wasn't easy, and his legs were still burning, but his goo, to include the bodysuits he had both girls wearing under their circus costumes, was allowing him to cheat, as he was sure Megan had been to pull off her part of the trapeze act with Robin, and as Connor had been to hurl barrels into the air, including one to catch Robin when he fell and hurl him back into the air for Megan to catch.
"You guys were great!" Megan squealed as the five of them got back.
"Cassius," Cassandra said.
"Yea, he did the hard work," Rose said, she and Cassandra having already given him back his goo.
"Still, it was impressive," Robin said. "I don't think I've ever seen someone juggle two people quite so fast. I've seen the act before, but yours was definitely better."
"Had to put on a good show," Cassius said, then frowned. "You're sweating. You okay?"
"I think I caught that twenty-four-hour bug that's been going around," Robin said.
Cassius nodded. "Give it to me, and I'll make you fight Cassandra."
Robin laughed. "I'll do my best."
"Faraday," a white-haired man in a suit who'd been harassing the ring-leader, who he suspected of orchestrating the thefts, said from behind Cassius, holding out an Interpol badge. "Interpol. New acts?"
"Wait a minute," Cassius said. "Your name is King Faraday?"
"Unfortunately, so," the man said. "Makes for an unpleasant high school career. Back to my question."
"Yeah," Robin nodded. "Just joined the tour."
"Probably clears you," Faraday said. "But don't get too comfortable. Haly's going down for this."
"As you command, your majesty," Cassius said, only for Robin's entire group, along with Rose, to smack him in the back of the head.
"Let's go," Robin muttered after a few minutes. "Time for the stakeout."
They all change quickly and headed to the likely target, spreading out around it in small teams.
"If Interpol is already on this, why are we here?" Connor asked.
"Because Batman said so," Robin said. "Why, you had something better to do?"
"Cool it Batman Jr.," Cassius said. "It's a fair question."
"How do we know the thieves will hit here?" Artemis asked.
"There are more obvious targets," Red Arrow agreed.
"And Faraday'll have them covered," Robin said, sounding out of breath even through the telepathic link. "But I've analyzed the tech already stolen and the pattern suggests this is the place."
"How're you feeling?" Megan asked.
"Lousy, actually," Robin said. "But I'll manage."
"You sound worn out even telepathically," Cassius said. "You can sit this out if you want. We can handle the fighting."
"No," Robin said flatly.
"Contact, north east quadrant," Connor reported.
The person sprinted to a gate and ran up one of the poles on it before flipping over the top of it.
"Wow," Cassius said. "Spry."
"Well, looks like we know why Carlo missed their performance," Superboy said, referring to one of the usual pair that Robin's group had replaced as the main event.
"Could be Carlo," Robin said. "Could be his brother. Keep an open mind and move in."
He and Megan went in instantly and Cassius nodded to Cassandra. She returned the nod before following Cassius down, Rose just behind them. However, as they reached the ground, Connor landed loudly beside them, forgoing all notion of stealth as he used his x-ray vision to look around.
"Did you see where he went?" Robin asked.
"The warehouse," Superboy finally said.
As they moved to go after him, Cassandra tapped Cassius on the side.
"Connor's really angry all of a sudden,"Cassandra signed.
"I'm sure he's fine," Cassius said. "But thanks for the heads up."
Cassandra nodded and they slipped into the warehouse, gathering on a catwalk above where the thief was stealing tech from a crate. Robin laughed to announce their presence.
"Caught red-handed," Robin said. "Red-faced, too, I'll bet."
"Should have greeted him by restraining him," Cassius said.
"Acrobatics won't get you out of this," Artemis said.
The man began to turn, reaching for something, and Rose shrieked in fear, grabbing Cassius and leaping away instantly. A moment later, the man pulled out a flare, lighting it as he turned, and blew a massive jet of flame up at all of them, sweeping the flames along the catwalk and forcing everyone but Connor to flee. Cassius's eyes widened. She had known. Somehow, even before there was any indication of what was coming, she had known. As the two of them stood, another memory played. Rose shrieking for him to run, then shoving him. Then after she'd pushed him out of the way, a ship flipping and firing down at where he'd been, killing her instead.
As the flames ended, Red Arrow leaned out, drawing his bow back, only to stop, staring at a crate off to the side. Cassius looked and his gut dropped as he saw it was marked "LIVE AMMO" with a picture of several bullets above the words. Before he could even consider fleeing, Cassandra, having also seen the crate, grabbed both he and Rose and sent her grappling gun out through a window to a building across from them, launching them out the window. A moment later, the ammo exploded, every window exploded outward, flames raging from inside. As it did, a bullet from one of the crates punched through Cassandra's side, but she made no reaction, swinging the three of them up to a roof beside the building and setting them down.
"Okay?" Cassandra asked.
"I'm fine," Cassius said. "You're hurt."
Cassandra shook her head and signed, "It's shallow and didn't hit anything. I've got three hours before it becomes a problem."
Cassius shook his head. "Here. At least let me stop the bleeding."
He used his goo to pack the entry and exit wounds, again with Cassandra not batting an eyelash, then stood and turned to the building as Connor ran out of the building with Megan, then Artemis and Red Arrow with Robin a few moments later. Cassandra and Rose headed down to meet them and Cassius flew around the building once with a pair of goo wings before joining them.
"The thief?" Robin asked, being supported by the archers.
Cassius shook his head. "Gone."
"Way to ditch the team in there you three," Red Arrow spat. "Way to show your true colors."
"Yeah, and my colors happen to be flammable," Cassius said. "Which you already know. Don't try and act like we betrayed you. Cassandra reacted to a threat and got us outside before the explosion could potentially kill us."
"What a perfect excuse for being a coward," Red Arrow said.
"Enough," Robin said. "Cassius is right. The three of them did nothing wrong by getting clear of an explosion the rest of us were too slow to escape from. remember Aqualad's warning about you tearing the Team's cohesion apart, Red Arrow. All three of them have proven themselves loyal, capable, and dependable several times over. Let's head back to the circus before we get caught being out of bed."
They all nodded and headed back to the circus. Once they were there, Cassius and Cassandra headed to the room on the train they were sharing between the two of them and Rose, and Cassandra and Rose took their hero costumes off, Rose putting on pajamas Cassandra simply sat on the bed so Cassius could treat her bullet wound. Cassius rolled his eyes.
"You know, you could at least put on underwear first," Cassius signed.
"Why?" she signed back.
"You know why," he said, giving her a knowing look before returning his focus to his work.
"I don't care if people see me," Cassandra signed. "I've got nothing I want to hide."
"It's not about that," Cassius said, snipping the end of the thread after stitching both holes, then pressing a bandage pad to her wound in front and back, Rose holding them in place while he wrapped bandages around her. "It's inappropriate and you know it. I've told you that several times."
Cassandra shrugged noncommittally, and he sighed, securing the end of the bandages.
"Get dressed," he said.
She stood, hugging him, then quickly pulled pajamas on.
"Megan, are we discussing things tonight, or tomorrow?" Cassius asked, able to feel the lingering connection she kept as an emergency communication line on missions, even if she wasn't actively listening to their thoughts.
"Tomorrow," Megan responded.
"Alright," Cassius said. "Good night then."
"Good night," Megan said cheerfully.
He climbed into the bed, both girls snuggling into his sides before closing their eyes. Before they could fall asleep, however, he gave Rose a light squeeze, making her look up at him.
"How'd you know to get me out of the way?" Cassius asked. "How'd you know he'd use fire?"
Rose frowned for a moment before speaking. "I saw it. I don't know how, but I saw him breathe fire before he did."
"You saw me get blasted during the training exercise too, didn't you?" Cassius asked. "That was how you knew to tackle me and how you were able to save me."
She nodded. "I don't mean it literally. More like...I saw it happen in my mind, even while I was seeing what was happening. I just...sort of new it would happen."
He nodded. "If you can figure out how to control that, you might be as good a fighter as Cassandra is."
Cassandra nodded in agreement.
Rose smiled and shrugged. "Maybe. So far, it's only happened three times."
"Wait, three?" Cassius asked.
"I saw Cassy get shot defending the thug before she did, too, but I was too far away to do anything that time," Rose said. "And I also only saw it happen about a half-second early."
Cassius nodded. "Seems like it activates when someone you care about is in danger."
Rose nodded. "I'm glad it's activated when it has. That fire tonight would have hit you directly."
"I know," Cassius nodded. "You saved my life."
She smiled and nodded, then cuddled back into his side, Cassandra doing the same. Cassius smiled, squeezing both gently, and closed his eyes, only to be brought back to reality about three seconds before being fully asleep when he heard Cassandra whimper and felt her curl into him. He squeezed her gently and she stilled before letting out a shuddering breath and holding him tighter still. He responded in kind and a half-hour later, she drifted off to sleep again, Cassius following shortly after.
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