Cassandra Archer was born to two people who shouldn't have had children. Troubled in their own ways, they abandoned their two children at a hospital and never looked back. Cassandra was four and her sister was two. She never saw her sister again after that and has a hard time remembering what the two year old's face looked like. She had no pictures of her birth parents or sister and only had a tattered patchwork quilt blanket with her to remind her of where she once was. That blanket is now tucked so far back in her closet that she's forgotten all about it.

At the age of five, barely a year into the system, Cassandra was adopted by Lee and Michelle Archer. It was going to be no secret that she was adopted since her adoptive parents were white and she clearly was a person of color. No one knew if she was African or Latino-descent so she didn't try to identify herself with one or the other more. She accepted that she didn't know much about her past roots and decided to be who she felt like she was. The Archer's treated her like she was their own child, showering her with love and affection something Cassandra wasn't too fond of. It took her a year or two before she finally accepted and opened herself up, putting all of her trust in people she didn't truly know.

For the most part, she lived a privileged life. Anything she wanted to do, it was given to her but not without doing something to earn it. Her father taught her the importance of being grateful and appreciative of the things and people around her. Her mother taught her to be a strong woman and not to let anyone run over her or treat her poorly. Being an adopted child, she was certainly looked down on and made fun of countless times because she didn't quite fit in with her parents' society. Cassandra made the best of it and always kept her head up high.

As far as she could remember, Hartford was home. She always dreamed of traveling when she was younger, taking pages from magazines and putting them up on her wall in lieu of pictures of the hottest new boyband or pop starlet. She collected travel books and would hole herself up in her room on rainy days planning trips she would hope to take one day. She was always a dreamer and would tell tall tales of what would happen on those trips. Most of which were about being a super-secret-ninja-pirate or running away and falling in love with Mister Right. When she got older, she was able to take those trips but not for the same reasons she thought of when she was younger.

Being a fast learner and a good student, Cassandra graduated from high school as a valedictorian two years earlier than the rest of her class. Frankly, she was bored with high school and the people in it. She was very uninterested in high school politics or trying to hang out with the cool kids. She spent more time with the losers and nerds because with them she knew that she didn't have to jump through hoops. Her parents wanted her to slow down and enjoy some of high school and not to go through it without making friends and experiencing everything there was to experience but even in those two years, she made lasting friendships.

The same year she graduated from high school, she applied for and was accepted to Columbia University at the age of sixteen. It was same university both of her parents attended. It was a proud moment for all of the family and there was some envy because she got there faster than the other two. Like high school she powered through at a rapid pace taking on as much as she could but unlike high school she actually took the time to enjoy everything there was about being away at college. She did things she shouldn't have done, she fell in and out of love, she made great friends with her sisters at her sorority, Omega Phi Beta. She graduated from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts.

Growing up, she was an active child. She took ballet, gymnastics, art and language classes as extracurricular activities outside of school. She was a very disciplined child and excelled in all activities from not giving up until she was perfect. She never accepted anything less. To balance out the 'girly' activities, her father enrolled her into karate. She absolutely loved it, probably more than ballet and gymnastics. It gave her the opportunity to take out her frustrations in life. When she got older, she took up kickboxing and Krav Maga and various weapons training. One could never be too careful in living in New York. She wanted to be prepared on the off chance that she was attacked and needed to defend herself.

Once she graduated from college, she moved to Boston for a change of scenery but to still be able to be close to her parents. She got a job at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts working as an assistant to the curator. It wasn't a dream job by any means but it was in doing something she loved to do or be around and that was art. She had an artistic side and would always find herself free-hand drawing paintings and statues that were on display. One day a stranger commented on a job well done and asked if she ever thought about becoming an artist or working for one. Of course she would have loved to be an artist but being an artist didn't mean it always paid the bills. Her parents wouldn't let her struggle or not be able to live but she didn't want to accept anything from them since she was too old to earn it like she would have been able to when she was younger. However, she did take up the stranger's suggestion and started really painting and doing replicas of famous paintings to the point where even the curator believed one of her copies was real until they did carbon dating. That was the beginning of her life of crime.

She always wanted to own the pieces that graced the walls of the museum but they were all priceless or way out of her price range. She had heard countless stories about how art thieves were very real and a danger to the art world. They intrigued her and she wanted to know more so she started asking questions without being too obvious about it. She kept seeing the same stranger who eventually revealed himself, on accident and in a heist gone wrong, to being an art thief. The two quickly bonded and she begged him to teach her the tricks of the trade. The student quickly became the teacher and she was running laps around him and his jobs. He was an older gentleman and looking to pass over his legacy. He just didn't think it would be to a woman and someone who was better at it than he ever was.

Cassandra does most of her thieving overseas where it's easier to get in and out of places without a whole lot of eyes on her and there was the added bonus of never seeing those people again unless she needed to. She has many aliases and disguises, even some that are still currently alive and in use. She steals for fun and for the thrill even though she's been in situations where it's turned dangerous and she's had to use force to get away or get in. She has been blessed to be able to use her good looks and charming personality more than force to get what she wants.