Let Me Go

Chapter Three: Friends

A/N: I do not own the picture above, Rose Wilson, Cass Cain, Donna Troy, or the events that have unfolded in the last two chapters. All other ideas in this chapter are mine.

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I walk down the broken cobblestones. I'm back near the scene of the battle with my father, a whispery shudder running permanently across my shoulders. Rose is waiting at the local police station, where she's been living for the past week. I hunted her out through the contact information that I got when I took the majority of the girls to the station. All of them were accounted for, exactly twenty. Rose was the last, and she's been alone.

When I arrive at my destination, I see her waiting on the doorstep. Her eyes are gazing out at the street vacantly, as if she is looking but not seeing. I catch her attention with a quick wave. She nods to me and begins to walk toward me, so I pause on the street and take her in.

She's wearing a ratty T-shirt that was probably once white. It has ellipse-shaped holes across the bottom hem and the ends of the fabric, torn into strips, are curling up. She's got a pair of jeans with holes in the knees on, something stretching the left pocket a little. She has untied sneakers on, and they were probably once as white as her shirt was. I bet she was pretty before they got to her.

To find her, I called the number I got from the police warden. I thought it would be quite a chase to find her, but it turns out they had found her a few days after I left. I took Bruce's plane, with his blessing, of course, and I plan to take her back in it.

"Hello," she says to me. Her voice is pleasant, especially considering her recent activity. "You're Cass Cain, right?"

"Yes," I reply. "I'm your ticket back to wherever you want to end up."

"How about to a cup of coffee? I think this needs some talking over."

I have to remind myself that she's Deathstroke's daughter and I'm David Cain's. We know the men the best, and we can take care of them the best. I agree and walk beside her down the street to a small café where we can get a small breakfast and a drink.

There, we get a pair of black coffees, a bagel for Rose, and a small pastry for me. We sit by the window, watching the street. We wait for our food and sip the lukewarm beverages. Rose tells me, without using too much detail, what happened to her. "They wanted to find a serum that would make us perfect. Little assassins for them to control, like puppets on strings. I was their favorite since my dad knows what I can do, you know?"

"I'm pretty sure that I would've been one of you if I hadn't run from my dad." I tell her. "He made me kill a man when I was eight. I was mute and couldn't express to him how much I hated it."

"I heard about you," she murmurs. "They loved to tell us how perfect you were, how you'd inspired them to make assassins who knew the language of violence as their only tongue."

"I used to read people like books," I sigh. "Now I'm better at things like novels."

"I bet you like it better, though."

"I do. I've got a family that adopted me, and they care what happens to me, and I'm at peace." I tell her. She shakes her head, and I ask what's wrong. She replies, "I wonder sometimes what would have happened to me if my brothers lived. Would I have ended up like you?"

"I don't know. Dick told me about them, and I started to think about it. Maybe your dad would have taken you in and you would have a family like I do, maybe not. Then again, weren't you happy with the Titans? That wouldn't have happened, I'll bet."

"I suppose you're right. That does remind me, are you taking me back to them?"

"If you want me to."

"Where else could I go?"

"That's up to you. There are a few people I know that you could stay with."

"Have you ever met Donna Troy?" She asks. "I think I'll give her a call."

I have indeed met the first Wonder Girl. Her adopted sister Cassie carries that name now, and Donna goes by Darkstar. I respect the girl's power within the Titans and the Justice League, which she was initiated into at the start of the year. I tell this to Rose, who expresses her joy on the matter. "Donna and I were always friends. She and I told each other a lot and she was the one who suggested I go to find out about my father's life in the first place."

"Barbara and I do the same thing."

"She's more or less your sister, though."

"In a way. She isn't actually a part of the Wayne family, other than the fact that she has been a bat for as long as Grayson has. But everyone knows her, everyone thinks of her as a sister."

They finish our food, so we grab our breakfast and settle down by the huge window at the front. Then, she stares vacantly out at the street. I don't speak, thinking about home. What I'm going to do with Rose. Then she says, "You know, we should've ended up friends. With how close our fathers are and whatnot."

"Do you want to be friends?" I ask. It's a bit sudden, but I know where this is going. And I'm okay with that. She replies, "Yeah. Why not? You need friends."

"Alright, then. We can be friends." I settle within the finality of my words, with a girl I'm going to end up a friend to.