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The ride back to the motel was silent other. Hughie tried making conversation with Cass, asking her a question about Grace but she threatened to smash his face into the airbag and he swallowed his curiosity the rest of the ride.

Butcher slows in front of the motel, doing a quick sweep over he notices a black flower van and continues forward causing Cassius to glance up from her relaxed, layout position in the back. Shit.

"You missed it." Hughie gently tells him.

"Eyes front." Butcher demands lowly. Cass inhales sharply. Fuck. "Eyes fucking front, Hughie." He repeats forcefully and Hughie snaps his head straight. "Boys are gone." Butcher glances at Cass through the rear-view and they share the same look.

Hughie's eyes widen. "What?"

"Someone's grabbed them." Butcher says.

"Oh, yeah? How do you know that?" Hughie challenges.

"It was obvious." Cass puts simply.

"The window's new, the front path is scrubbed, and there's a black van with 'Flowers' on it, probably full of cunts waiting to jump us." Butcher explains.

"Vought?" Hughie's voice raises an octave and Cass groans to herself, hearing the panic.

"Not Vought." She voices.

"Someone else doing their dirty work for them." Butcher nods in agreement. "Probably some Fed black ops unit."

"And I'm stuck here, with you two, because I just had to come." Cass clips. Hughie AND Butcher? It wasn't Bellamy, at least, but damn.

"It worked, dinnit?" Butcher glances back at her. "Would you rather be captured with The Boys?"

She scoffs a laugh. "I wouldn't have been taken." She eyes her fingers disappearing in and out of the few sun-rays peaking through before dragging her palms down her pants.

Fucking fabulous.

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"Okay. Okay, what are we... what-what are we gonna do?" Hughie stumbles out once Butcher's parked behind a building, going through his trunk. Cass leans against the car, her head hanging back. "How are we gonna get the guys back?"

"I say we let them have Bellamy and Frenchie, good sacrifice, good riddance." She tilts her head to the side, eyeing Hughie.

"We're on our own. We've got to get to Stillwell before the walls close in." Butcher says.

"Stillwell, are you fucking serious?" Cass snaps. That woman was little to know fucking help and pretty much told them to all but fuck off.

"Who gives a fuck about Stillwell? We have to go back for them." Hughie shouts. Ah, he started off so great, Cass thinks to herself, sighing as she shifts legs.

"You don't get it, Hughie." Butcher gruffs. "We got about a couple hours before they find us, and that's if we're lucky."

"Which we usually aren't." Cass mutters.

"We got to hit back and hit back now." Butcher finishes, tossing something back inside the trunk.

"You're abandoning them." Hughie squints. "I mean, they all... they risked their... Mother's Milk has a daughter."

"That doesn't mean shit, Hughie." Cass stares at the concrete bitterly before meeting Hughie's gaze. "He made his choice." An irresponsible one. But he made it.

You don't learn until the damage is already permanently done, and you're left with nothing.

"You're just going to abandon your brother?!" Hughie look at him in disbelief. Cass rolls her eyes.

"They'd want us to finish the job." Butcher says. "And I'd expect Bellamy to do the same." Bellamy has no problem abandoning... Cass grits her teeth together.

"Your job." Hughie corrects. "Your job, not theirs." He pauses. "It's all about Homelander, isn't it?" The mention of Homelander regains Cass's attention.

"And A-Train." Butcher adds.

"Hughie, don't make me fucking side with him," Cass throws her hand in Butcher's direction, "But we all know what we signed up for."

"Exactly." Butcher nods in agreement. "This is your fucking shit, too, Hughie." He points his screwdriver at him before tossing it down in the trunk. "I promised you payback, didn't I?" He turns to look at Cassius. "You too."

Her brows lift. "You have yet to deliver."

"Mallory give you the same speech back in the day?" Hughie looks at him.

"Yeah. Yeah, she did. But she broke her promise." Butcher points to himself. "I'm keeping mine."

Cass and Hughie actually chuckle in sync. "Butcher men break their promises, too, Hughie. They can't be trusted, and they can't follow through. Or it takes them thirty tries to get there." Her jaw locks in growing anger.

Hughie hangs his head. "I'm so fucking stupid. You never cared about me." He tells Butcher. "Or Robin, did you?" Cass lifts her brows, knowing he's spilling. "I was just useful to you."

Cassius slowly cups her hands loudly together. He learned much faster than the rest of them. The Butcher men have a great way of making you feel important, but once the rose-gold glasses are off... you see things for how they truly are. "Reality's a bitch, huh? But props to you for figuring that out way quicker than the rest of us did."

"Cassius." Butcher sighs, looking at her defeatedly.

"I am not on your side. I am here because I am stuck here, wanted by the fucking feds and Homelander himself." Cass crosses her arms.

"Thanks for that." Butcher mutters before taking a step towards Hughie. "Fuck, Hughie. Of course you're useful. I mean, that's why you're here, isn't it? And as much as Cassius hates being here, she's useful, and she knows it, too."

The blonde woman scoffs. Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"Now we just got to take one more step. And don't let her fool you," Butcher directs his finger forcefully in Cass's direction, "She may be talking big now, but she knows what she wants. She knows the goal."

Her eyes narrow at him. "Are you done speaking for me?"

"Are you done playing devil's advocate, sweetheart?" He turns to face her. "Look, if you didn't want to be here, you would've left by now, or you wouldn't have come back at all. We all know you can't force Cassius Mallory to do anything she doesn't truly want to do."

Screaming internally doesn't begin to cover the amount of rage coursing through Cass's veins at Butcher's words. Mostly because he was right. As much as she hates to fucking admit it, damn was he right.

"Come on." Butcher starts off towards the car.

"No." Hughie refuses, stopping Butcher in his tracks, causing Cass to huff out a sigh. "We have to save them."

"For fuck's sakes, Hughie, we don't have time for this shit right now, okay?" Butcher snaps. "We get Stillwell. Now, get in the fucking car."

"Then what?" Hughie fires back. Cassius groans. They're wasting time. "Becca comes back from the dead? Your little cousins? Robin, too?"

"Watch your fucking mouth." Cass's nostrils flare.

"This is never gonna stop— it's just gonna be more blood and... awfulness."

Butcher storms up to him. "That's the fucking game. If you don't like to play, why did you join the fucking team?"

"Mallory's right— you're just gonna drag us all down with you." Hughie comes to the realization. "What did she tell you?" He looks to Cassius. "When you joined."

Cass blinks furiously. "She didn't want me to join." She spits out. "Here we are now."

"Not me. Not anymore." Hughie claims.

"You're a fucking pathetic cunt." Butcher tells him. "And an insult to Robin's memory."

"Damn." Cass cough, brows shooting back up.

"I think I'm doing this for her."

"Goodbye, Hughie. Cassius, let's fucking go." Butcher heads towards the car and Cass pushes herself off it. She's doing this for Kennedy and Caroline... even if it kills her.

"Cassius-" Hughie tilts his head in distress and desperation.

"They made their choice, Hughie. We all did. And I'd expect any one of them to keep going." She tells him honestly, opening the passenger door. "And I don't owe them shit."

She isn't going to allow herself to be distracted this time. Not when she's this close.

And if that means she has to side and leave with Butcher of all people... then so be it. Her intentions have been clear, and so has her reason for coming back. And it wasn't for any of them.

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0вυттєявιѕ¢υιт7 ѕρєαкѕ!

Heyyy... feel like I say this everytime, but long time no see lmao. How we feeling about the chap...

Cass had more than 5-10 lines shall we all cheer? Idk if her decision will come off as shocking or not to y'all, but as she said Cass has made it pretty clear from the beginning what she's there for... IKTR!! Hey, I never said she was sweet... quite the opposite actually bahaha, but can we blame her? (maybe, but hey we support women's rights & wrongs... but Cass is just never wrong <3)

Anywaysss, Hughie was asking to get k!lled there for a minute, wasn't he? But when M.M. is the only one she tolerates, no way she was going back to save Frenchie & Bellamy's asses lmao.

Happy 6th Birthday to The Boysss... & I hope y'all enjoyed this chapterrr!! Until next time, mwah!! ;)