The Angel and The Mujahid

A Fan Fiction by MJTR

[[Crossover related info, because I put way too much thought into how this stuff works:

This fic functions on the basic rules semi-established by DC and Marvel for their cross-overs. The Marvel and DC universes periodically see some small-scale merging. History is all intact, though some memories might be slightly altered. The universes will unjoin once the messes within them are cleaned up, blah blah blah. I like to write in Original Flavor, I like to play by pre-established rules.

This fic is in the same slightly altered continuity as my previous story, Angel of the Bat. I'll knock a brief synopsis of that out in this chapter, so you don't need to read it beforehand. It also acts as a sort of replacement for the Crushed arc in Ms. Marvel. We'll get there when we get there.

No comment on what year this takes place. Trying to figure that out just doesn't work for me.

Okay, think that covers it. Let's have some fun.]]

She looked herself up and down for what would well have been the hundredth time, chewing on her bottom lip nervously and trying to figure out what she was doing wrong. She had seen everyone else dressed up like this, at some point or another. Barbara looked great, Stephanie looked great, Sadie had looked stunning. So what was she doing wrong?

"I hate dresses," Cassandra said under her breath with a sigh and a glare at her mirror. Less than a year ago she would never have even given the process of dressing up a second thought. Her few friends never had her dressing in anything more than her uniform, Bruce never asked her to come with him to social events the way he did Dick and Tim. Before Sadie, she didn't dress up for anyone.

"Love does crazy things to a girl," Stephanie had teased. "It makes you stupid. But a great kind of stupid."

"Does it make Tim stupid?" Cassandra asked.

"C'mon. Tim's one of the smartest guys we know. Even Bruce is impressed with him half the time… But I make him very stupid."

"Well, I feel that way now," Cassandra sighed, pulling off the dress and hanging it in her closet, stepping out of the uncomfortable high heels she was wearing. She had hoped the garment, a bright white on top leading to a belt across the stomach and a long black skirt, would feel more comfortable as it was at least a little more reminiscent of her uniform. But she still didn't feel right. It was close enough, she reluctantly decided, and was going to be done trying them on for the night.

She got a look at herself again as she changed into a tank top and a pair of exercise shorts, pulling the small, silver cross necklace out from the inside of her shirt and to the outside. This was her natural state. Short of the uniform, of course.

It would be a long day tomorrow, she remembered, but she wasn't quite ready yet. Grabbing the pillow off her bed, she laid it on the ground, bent down on her knees and began to say her nightly prayers.

A year ago, Cassandra Cain had been Batgirl. She fought against crime and the forces of evil in Gotham, her English was poor and neither thoughts of religion or relationships ever really crossed her mind.

Now, she was The Angel of the Bat, Angel for short, her English was only a little better and God and Sadie were running through her mind constantly.

Two events had run concurrent with her discovery, conversion and life in Catholicism. A maniac in an angelic costume began to preach of Gotham's indecencies and corruption and nearly claimed countless lives in an attempt to incite a pseudo-rapture. And she had met and subsequently become romantically linked to a girl a year older than her named Sadie. The dichotomy of Cassandra's simultaneously realized religious belief and pansexuality had weighed on her in a number of obvious ways. Sadie didn't come to church with her (though she identified as agnostic anyway) and Cassandra didn't openly talk about her in rare conversations with other parishioners. Even Monsignor Ryan, her dear friend and even a keeper of her secret identity, didn't know Sadie existed.

God is love she continued to remind herself. God is love.

No more than a minute or two into her prayer the cell phone sitting on her nightstand began to ring. Cassandra looked for a moment, concluded her latest thought and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hello Cassandra."

"Dad," she replied with a smile.

"I just knew I might not get out to you before you leave town tomorrow," he said. "I wanted to make sure I wished you a safe trip. You know you can call me if anything goes wrong."

"I am only going overnight," Cassandra laughed.

"Still, you're one of mine. I look after you. All of you… Even when you're trouble." His inflection implied that last bit wasn't intended for her.

"I only snapped three fingers! They'll heal! He doesn't deserve it, but they'll heal!"

"Say hello to your sister," Bruce said. The phone went quiet for a few seconds before Bruce said, "Damian says hello."

Cassandra laughed again. "Hello, Damian."

"Call me when you get to Jersey City tomorrow," Bruce instructed. "Don't give me a reason to worry."

"I won't," Cassandra assured him. After a few more words and a wish goodnight, Bruce hung up. With that, Cassandra knelt in front of her bed and resumed praying.

In spite of the struggles, most of it was good. In her faith she found the hope needed to work towards greater ideals than she had ever imagined before. It was easier to smile and laugh than it ever had been before. More than anything else, it made her happy. It was easy to take the bad with the good.

The next day at noon, Cassandra arrived at the train station, stepping out of the car driven by Sadie's second cousin Patrick, along with his wife Charlene and Sadie herself. The younger two were still dressed in street clothes while Patrick and Charlene appeared more proper, though their formal attire, like the girls, was in their suitcases.

"Alright, so we'll arrive at about one-thirty," Patrick said, looking down at his watch. "Another fifteen or twenty minutes to the hotel by cab… The park's right across the street but I don't want anything making us late. I want you both to meet us in the lobby at three-fifteen, alright?"

"Will do," Sadie said with a nod.

"And hey listen," he added. "You two have your own room, but no funny business, you understand? We're trusting you."

"What's really going to happen?" Sadie asked, smirking.

"I don't know," Patrick sighed, adjusting his jacket uncomfortably. "Just… Don't do anything… Indecent. Alright? You're still just kids."

"Alright, alright," Sadie said. "Yeesh, did you forget Cassie's Catholic? Her religion invented the chastity belt."

"We all trust Cassandra," Charlene replied. "It's you we're hesitant about."

Cassandra chuckled and shook her head. Patrick and Charlene had been wonderful people since the first day she had met them. After some of the uncomfortable conversations she had Sadie had shared about her mother, it was comforting to know her loved one was now in safe, caring hands.

Sadie had invited Cassandra to a wedding just out of town for another distant relative of hers, part of her urging including, "I don't even know most of these people! I'm going to die of boredom if I don't have someone to play off of."

Cassandra had her own share of hesitations, most particular to her being that she had never attended a wedding before and would have no idea how to act. But Sadie had promised to make it easy for her to follow along, together with the assurance, "Nobody will give us any trouble, by the way. I asked Patrick, they're not exactly old school."

The train arrived on time, the trip was straightforward and uneventful and the four of them took a cab to a 3-star hotel across the street from Smith Park. Sadie all but fell onto one of the big white beds and let out an exacerbated sigh as her suitcase hit the floor. "We have over an hour. I'm not getting up for the first forty-five."

"We're barely an hour from home," Cassandra said, setting down her own duffel bag, a little longer than a normal one, Sadie noted. With that, Cassandra lied down and began to stretch out.

"Aw c'mon. You just gonna leave me over here?" Sadie teased.

"We told your family we would be good," Cassandra replied.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know we did. But how about this?" Sadie sat up from her bed, took a few steps over to the one where Cassandra was lying and laid down next to her, wrapping her arms around her and coaxed her to lie next to her. "We're just hugging. And we happen to be laying down. That's not anything incriminating, is it?"

Cassandra sighed as she felt her resistance weaken. "Stephanie says you make me act stupid."

"Yeah? You make me feel the same way sometimes." Sadie laid a peck on her forehead. "You make me feel the same way a lot of the time."

The two laid back for about forty-five minutes before Sadie got up to style her short, brown hair a little and change into her bright, blue dress and asking for a hand with the zipper in the back.

"Do I look okay?" She asked, arms raised above her head.

"Great," Cassandra said, blushing a little. "But you always do."

"Aw cut it out," Sadie replied. "We've already got one blusher in the room."

The wedding with the Sadie's two relatives took place quickly and smoothly, the girls seated at one of the many white tables surrounding the designated dance square just in front of a gargling fountain as the sun began to set. Cassandra shifted in her seat a little, scratching behind her head as she looked at all the laughing, dancing couples. She looked to Sadie as she took a sip from her glass of water.

"Do you want to dance?"

"I don't think either of us is really the dancing type," Sadie said. "You've told me before you aren't."

"I could tonight," Cassandra said. "If you want to."

Sadie smiled and shook her head before saying, "How about we wait for a different song? Shout is just a little too cheesy for me."

They sat patiently, holding hands a few seconds in. When Shout came to an end, Celebration began to play and Sadie made a face. "Oh man, it just gets worse. I wanna wait on this one too."

Soon Macarena replaced Celebration. "Are they trying to kill me here?" Sadie moaned. "I told you this was going to be lame, but damn!" Sadie took her hand from Cassandra's and put her face into her palm as Cha Cha Slide began to play. "… You wanna get up for this one?"

"I hate this song," Cassandra said simply.

"Good… Alright, let's make a deal. Next song, so matter how dumb, we get up, okay?"

"Okay."

When the many children in the reception rushed up to the dance floor as the first notes of The Chicken Dance began to play, Sadie looked dead eyed at Cassandra and said, "That one doesn't count. Next one."

"Next one."

Within three minutes, The Chicken Dance came to an end and My Heart Will Go On took its place, Sadie ready to smack her head into the table. "Oh for the love of-"

Only a few measures into the song the stereo was overtaken by a deafening explosion. There came screams and a look of horror from the otherwise unharmed DJ as he slowly pulled himself up from underneath his table.

"Oh thank the heavens! I hate that song!"

As the smoke cleared a man stood amongst the destruction, his hair slicked back and his body shining in a bright, blue luminescent glow. Amongst the screaming and terror, the glowing man took a few steps forward and picked the microphone up off the DJ's table. "Dearly beloved… I'm sorry for interrupting your wedding this evening, but the park is a public place, you know?"

"Who the hell are you?!" A brave man out of the group demanded.

"I'm the guy who just blew up that stereo with my hand! Show some respect, worm!"

Cassandra and Sadie slowly looked up the table's underside, Cassandra biting her lip as she looked back and forth between the blue man and the hotel across the street.

If she hadn't thought something like this would happen, she wouldn't have packed her uniform.

"People of New Jersey, I want to welcome you all to a glorious new age! You were gathered here to see a beautiful couple stand before God… Well here I am! And I'm not alone either!"

This remark dug deep as Cassandra glared at him and turned her attention back towards the hotel. She just had to make a dash for her room on the third floor. As she pushed up Sadie grabbed her shoulder and hissed, "What are you doing?!"

"I need to go," Cassandra said.

"Yeah, so do all of us!" Sadie said, whispering and shouting both at the same time. "Cassandra, I know you're probably pissed about what he just said but-"

Cassandra knelt down and hugged Sadie tight as the bright, blue man continued his speech. "I will be safe. I promise."

"Then what in the world are you-"

"You do the same," Cassandra continued, pulling away and quickly kissing her on the lips before standing up again. "I will see you soon."

Cassandra bent down and unclasped her heels as fast as she could, tossing them aside and running barefoot towards the hotel, only managing a few feet before a blast of lightning singed the grass in front of her. Cassandra stepped back and glared at the source of the attack, a young woman in a black stalking cap, her eyes burning white as electricity rushed over the course of her body.

"Where do you think you're going?" She sneered. "My buddy's giving the speech of a lifetime."

"Leave." Cassandra commanded, hoping against hope she wouldn't trip on her dress if she tried to run.

"I don't think so little girl," Her opponent said mockingly, taking note and raising an eyebrow at the silver cross hanging from Cassandra's neck. "It's a new age. The gods have come down from the heavens and are ready to remind your kind of who's really in charge. The age of the Inhumans starts now!"

With that came three blasts of lightning, all of which Cassandra managed to out-maneuver. She certainly wasn't as fast as the attacks, but her years of studying movement allowed her to predict where the blasts would hit. Her opponent continued, undeterred, entertained even. "Well hey, everybody gets a chance to dance at a wedding, don't they?"

Cassandra said nothing as she rolled out of the way of the latest blast, jumping at the electrical woman with the additional force of her squatted stance and landing a punch right between her eyes. The woman screamed as she was thrown backwards, clutching her face as Cassandra stood up straight again, taking a fighting stance.

"Oh, you're going to regret that!" She screamed. "I'll teach you who-"

Whatever the threat was going to be, she didn't get a chance to make it. Before Cassandra and she could resume their battle, a fist, over three feet wide and four feet tall hit the electrified woman like a brick wall, again knocking her backward. In confusion Cassandra stared at the fist, seeing the arm it was attached to went another four feet back and led to a teenage girl with long black hair, garbed in a bright blue uniform with a lightning bolt running down the center. Cassandra continued to look at her, dumbstruck, as she ran forward, her arm and fist quickly reverting to normal size.

"Hey there, you okay?" The girl asked. Cassandra, after a few seconds of absorbing the sight, nodded. "You might wanna get out of here. These guys look like they mean business."

With that the masked girl ran past Cassandra and towards the crowd. Still confused by exactly what was happening, Cassandra remembered the attack being perpetrated in her midst and resumed her run back toward the hotel. As she did, she could hear the girl issuing a threat against her opponents.

"You guys came to the wrong side of town! Your friendly neighborhood Ms. Marvel is here!"