Thanksgiving came and went quietly that year. There were no major crimes to report, no asylum breakouts, dinner was smooth at the Wayne household. The family with the exception of Bruce, sat lethargically that night, full of turkey and potatoes. Barbara joined them later that night, she and Dick taking shots of schnapps between conversations. At around nine PM, Bruce excused himself from the living room, everyone already knowing where he was going.

"You're out of your mind," Dick groaned, leaning deep into the couch. "Calendar Man's in Arkham. Joker's in Arkham… If Condiment King is out of jail, I'll bet everyone's glad to see him. He could have stopped by and dropped off some more gravy."

"Crime doesn't take a holiday," Bruce replied. "Hopefully I won't need any of you, but be ready if I do."

"Maybe you should swing by the mall then," Tim joked. "Black Friday's a great day for theft and damages." When Bruce didn't respond, he quickly added, "You probably shouldn't do that. That was a joke."

"I'm aware that you don't think I know the difference," Bruce retorted. "But I do."

And onward the next week went. Cassandra was treated to an elongated sermon by Monsignor Ryan that Sunday on the importance of the Advent season. Though the phrase eluded her at first, she felt she had something of an understanding as he continued on about the coming of Christmas, and the celebration of Christ's birth.

"Now I know it is hard for many of us to imagine, but it was a bleak time when Jesus came for his pilgrimage on earth. Every day we all face challenges. For some, we wonder how we will put food on the table. Others worry about receiving taking medicine on time. Or even something as simple as if you'll have time to see your children before you tuck them in to sleep. And I'm positive at some time or another, we have all wondered, 'Where is God when I need him?' And that is a difficult place to be."

"Imagine then, our Jewish predecessors. Conquered in battle many times, sometimes forced to worship only in secret, desperate for an answer to the pains they experienced every single day. And I'm sure to many of them, God seemed very far away. Who among us didn't have that time where we looked to our parents and said, 'I know you fed me, and raised me and clothed me, but what have you done for me lately?'" There was a brief round of laughter few the pews. "I teach middle schoolers how to prepare for confirmation. I hear things like that all the time. We think our parents really don't have any idea what we're going through. But just like our parents, God does know what we have been through. God walked a mile in our shoes. And through his son, Jesus, has insight for every one of us."

"God came to earth and revealed that he wasn't so far away. That he would always be close at hand and would always listen. God has shown us his true nature, and that it is a great, wonderful thing. And so as we approach the Christmas season, the music, the lights, the delicious foods and the presents for the little ones, do not lose sight of the greatest gift we were sent this season. God has given a chance to know him, and through that, we can know, and bring out the best in ourselves."

As Cassandra looked to the alter, it was as if something was again awakened within her. Nothing nearly so extreme this time, but a decision. She had grappled with it for days then, but now she was sure. It was just going to be a matter of fighting for it.

Two nights later, as she was summoned to the cave, Cassandra gathered her courage, stepped out of her room and through the passageway. As if to test how long she could wait for a response, the manor seemed already abandoned, her compatriots already within the cave.

Bruce was already speaking when she walked in and he fell dead silent. Dick and Tim both gave him looks of confusion before they turned around and had double-takes of their own.

"… I told Alfred to get rid of that thing. Immediately," Bruce said sternly. "Where did you find it?"

"The bin," Cassandra said. "Buried under old uniforms… More than there should have been," she added.

"Alfred must have put those there to try and hide it," Bruce said under his breath.

The uniform that Cassandra had designed fit perfectly, the colors and definition, while bright, flowed well with one another. The only black still notable on her person was her hair, which Bruce also took note of.

"Did you cut that yourself?"

"I tried," Cassandra said. The unevenness was instantly notable and, indeed, amateurly done. "You said it had to be shorter."

"I did say that," Bruce replied, "And I also said I wasn't letting you out wearing that thing. It isn't even supposed to be here. It was a shipping order mistake. Nothing more."

"But it is here," Cassandra argued. "I think there is reason for that."

"Don't make that argument to me," Bruce said, his sternness seeming to slowly change to anger. "I thought we already talked about this. I'm not trying to suppress your faith, I'm trying to keep you alive!"

"Monsignor Ryan said through God we reveal who we are. This is who I am." Cassandra insisted.

"You can be that all you want when you're not in costume," Bruce said, his voice growing gruffer still. "In that church, he's your leader. In this cave, I am."

"But Bruce-"

"And in that church you are one of his children… But in this house you are one of mine! If you're coming out tonight, you're going to take that off and not put it on again-"

"I don't mean to interrupt," Dick said, "But did you happen to just catch that on the radio?"

"What?" Bruce asked. He gave Dick a look before going to it and turning it up.

"We repeat, all civilians are urged to stay indoors! Police have confirmed an attack by the terrorists identifying themselves as 'The Cherubim' in The Gotham Village. The GCPD has just confirmed an attack on 'The Garden' nightclub."

"I can't even believe with all that Sodom and Gomorrah it took them this long," Tim said with a grit of his teeth. "We need to get out there."

"Right. You two are coming with me. Cassandra, I'm ordering you to either change or-"

"It has also just been confirmed that the criminal 'Red Hood' is leading some kind of attack in The Diamond District. What he hopes to gain is currently unknown."

Bruce swore under his breath as he pulled on his cowl. "Change of plans. Dick, you and Stephanie need to try and settle this with Jason while he's still out in the open."

"You sure about that?" Dick asked. "He's just another assassin right now. The Seraphim is the real problem."

"If Lebowitz gets his hands on Jason, he might be able to bend him until he breaks," Bruce said. "None of those other assassins know who I really am. If Jason lets that out, this only gets worse."

"Really a good thing Hush is out of the country then," Tim said. "I'd never ever thought about that."

"Understood," Dick replied, sliding his mask over his face and approaching his motorcycle. "You might want to talk to Steph about this Tim, provided this isn't the night we catch him. She's weirdly focused on this case."

With that, Dick sped out from the cave and all attention returned to Cassandra, dressed all in white but bearing the symbol of golden stained glass.

"My terms haven't changed," Bruce asserted. "I'm not letting you out like that."

"Bruce, if I could interject," Tim began. "Look, I know you have a million logical reasons to oppose this, but time is kind of of the essence here. The longer we stand here arguing, the more notches The Seraphim gets in his belt."

"Then she stays here," Bruce maintained.

"I don't know about you, but I really don't want to try and face those four head on, just the two of us," Tim replied. "Especially considering one of them could very well be Croc… I know you're worried Bruce, but this is Cassie we're talking about here. Beating up the bad guys is what she does best!"

There was a tense silence between the three of them for a few seconds before there came the echo of feet descending the staircase into the cave and the mention that, "All children rebel against their parents sooner or later, Master Bruce."

Alfred stepped into the cave and exchanged looks with the three of them before Bruce said, "You told me you got rid of that suit."

"My apologies sir... We were just so near to the holiday already I was sure it could wait. I didn't think she'd find it." Again the quiet took them before Alfred remarked, "And with or without that costume, our Cassandra has only ever proven to us how strongly she seeks the betterment of this city. Right now there are lives in danger. Master Timothy is right, for now it is in everyone's best interest if you set this matter aside."

Bruce glared at Alfred briefly before telling Tim, "We'll be right behind you." As Tim finished pulling on his uniform and going to his bike, Bruce closed the distance between himself and Cassandra, easily towering over her and maintaining his stern look. "If this goes perfectly… If you don't lose a single drop of blood… You're still not wearing that suit again. If things weren't growing so dangerous right now, I wouldn't hesitate to take further action. Do not make me regret making this exception Cassandra."

"I will not. I promise," she assured him.

With that, for the first undeniable time, Cassandra left the cave under a new identity. She was, beyond any doubt, the Angel of the Bat.

By the time the Batmobile pulled into The Village there was already heavy gunfire being exchanged between The Cherubim and the GCPD. A row of bars and restaurants burned in the villains wake as Gordon hid behind one of his men's cars, trying to order in more reinforcements while struggling to come up with protocol for the thinly laid streets. Three of The Cherubim, garbed in Eagle, Lion and Bear masks were easily distinguished and firing rounds alongside The Seraphim's lesser, black-dressed servants. Even as bullets grazed The Cherubim, they did not slow or even show the smallest signs of pain. In spite of everything, fighting in the ways Batman would not still did not yield any results.

The standoff came to its abrupt end when the Batmobile and Redbird parked firmly across the street from the firefight, Batman, Robin and The Angel pulling themselves out and entering the fray. At first, one of the men in black didn't give it much mind. "You all know the drill!" He shouted. "Kill the pigs, kill the queers, leave the Bat for the boss!" He seemed content with this for only a moment before he got another look at the opponents he was facing. "Wait… What the… Who's the squint in white?"

"Holy hell, did the gospels just get replaced with how to use racial slurs with you guys?" Tim asked in disgust. "I know you're doing worse than that right this minute, but this is just getting disgusting."

Rounds of machine gun fire towards the police forced Robin to drop the subject as he and Batman started throwing batarangs and firing their grappling hooks at the gunmen, trying to disarm them. The Hawk, The Lion and The Bear all ran at them and intercepted their attention. With no sign of The Man anywhere, the fight looked to be an even three against three.

From their last two encounters, Bruce had struggled to devise some kind of consistent strategy against The Seraphim's strongest servants. Broken bones seemed to just snap back into place, they showed no sign of pain or weakness, and each was totally loyal to whatever commands they were receiving within their masks. And yet, according to Gordon and the polygraph tests, they didn't even know they were doing it. None had any memory of attacking while wearing the masks, and had somehow been manipulated without any detectable trace of drugs or outside influence. Cassandra's heart-stopping technique had been the closest thing to a consistent defeat measure they had seen, since tearing the masks off would require isolating one from the rest. In all of the time he had spent, Batman was still unsure how to overcome these masked powerhouses.

And yet such fears did absolutely nothing to halt Cassandra. Standing against The Eagle, Angel wasted no time and matched the swinging of his short swords with a pair of batarangs. The two exchanged slashes and blade locks for a few strikes before Angel kicked one of the blades out of The Eagle's hand, sending it flying blade-up for a moment before she reached out and managed to catch it. The two held a glare at one another before the two swords clashed. Within the first few strikes, however, it became very obvious that The Eagle really didn't know what he was doing. Despite being competent at wielding the blades against an unarmed opponent, knowledge of the weight, movements and stances of a sword-dual were lost to him, no matter what commands The Seraphim or any of his other allies tried to scream. In mere blows Angel was able to knock the second sword from The Eagle's hand. He reached for his pistol but in another kick Angel knocked the gun from his possession and raised one of the swords to his neck.

Showing what, for the first time, seemed to be desperation, The Eagle lunged at her and managed to knock Angel to the ground and forced her to drop the swords. Still, with a flurry of punches to his face, she was able to repel The Eagle, forcing him onto his back and allowing her the chance to grab the short swords again. However, rather than continue with him, Angel briefly retreated from their fight, making her way towards Robin and The Lion.

Robin, unused to combating one of the faces alone, had been overpowered, slashed across the chest with the serrated glove his opponent wore and smacked repeatedly across the face with the barrel of his shotgun. Robin was clutching at the bloody wounds on his chest, struggling to use his staff for support and fighting everything to keep a steady gaze.

When The Lion went in for another strike with his gun (surely because a blast at short range would be deadly and violate The Seraphim's orders), he was interrupted by the two swords Angel had stolen from The Eagle, halting his attack in mid-air and, with a few slashes of her own, knocking the gun out of his hand.

"Switch!" She commanded. Robin had only a moment to realize what she meant as The Eagle came rushing towards them. Reacting as best he could, Robin thrust his staff outward and jabbed The Eagle right in the stomach, and quickly used the first strike advantage to take the offensive against The Eagle. Angel, in contrast, kept her focus solely on The Lion.

The swipes of his claws were fast and their range was surprising, but Angel would not be overcome by them. As her already masterful movement-reading combined with the calm she felt within, her strength seemed almost multiplied. Angel was able to dodge slash after slash and, after a brief pause, responded with several of her own, managing to cut and sever the blades from The Lion's glove. The act required such precision and strength that as Batman turned upon hearing them clang against the ground, he was nearly struck by The Bear's polearm thanks to the moment he looked in disbelief.

Continuing her movements over the battlefield, she crossed to Batman's side. The Bear tried to alternate swinging and stabbing at the two of them, but it was quickly clear he was not used to battling two formidable opponents. As he returned attention to Batman, Angel was able to slip behind him and trip him from behind, effectively putting him to the ground in a single sweep. Switching to a backhanded grip on one of her swords, she smashed the pommel into The Bear's masked face, crashing it into his maw over and over before the animal was torn and the cybernetics started to show. She would have continued the attack, but there was a sudden, sharp pull on her frayed hair. She turned around and met with The Lion once again, who delivered a few punches to her face, forcing her off The Bear and causing her to drop the swords.

Frustrated by his interruption, Angel swiftly resumed her attack on The Lion. With a few kicks of her own she managed to put him to the pavement. Grabbing ahold of one of the swords, Angel took a slash into his oversized mane. The attack would seem impulsive and extremely dangerous under normal circumstances, but Angel had the chance to feel the weight within the mask as their fight had progressed. She looked and saw, as she had predicted, the exposed scalp of the man within. Angel was about to cut into the mask further when there came yells from the gunman watching over the fight.

"Whoever she is she's way too strong! Get him out of there already!"

As if he had been waiting in the wings for the command, the towering Man walked out from the burning building just before them. Batman and Robin's fears had been realized: standing at seven and a half feet tall, his exposed skin a sickening, scaly green, with the notable exception of a large burn-scar on his right arm. Killer Croc had been made into The Man.

"Stand down," a voice that was decidedly not Croc's commanded them. "We're not here for you tonight, Dark Knight. Stand down or I sick Jones on the pigs waiting over there."

"Nothing is stopping them from taking out the cops anyway," Robin said. "As if these things weren't bad enough, there he is. Just like they said. What do we do?"

"We can't just rush in. Between that mace and as strong as he already is, we'll have to-"

Batman didn't even have time to come up with a strategy. Before he could complete his thought with Robin, Angel had already rushed at The Man. Not expecting such a seemingly-foolish frontal assault, The Man swung his mace horizontally, as if swinging to take her head off. Angel was swift to duck the attack and delivered a jumping uppercut to his masked face thereafter. The Man did not stagger and, releasing one of his hands on the mace, layed a fierce punch across Angel's face, knocking her onto the ground.

Batman and Robin ran towards her to assist, but The Eagle, The Lion and The Bear all stood between them and the fight that was evolving. Still, even after his mighty first strike, Angel was back on her feet as if it was nothing. The Man took a few more swings with the mace, but none were nearly fast enough to keep up with her. In a movement to repeat her moves from Arkham, Angel slashed through the shoulder pads of his armor and, in a swift tear, ripped it from his chest.

The Man attempted another flurry of attacks, managing to strike her in the gut and leave her winded, but Angel made the distance necessary thereafter. When he raised the mace over his head, she knew the battle was won.

Angel thrust her palm into his chest, managing to narrowly mitigate the blow's deadly force and, within seconds, knocking The Man onto his back. And, also like in the asylum, every eye landed upon her and her fallen opponent.

"Are you kidding me?! It's that Batgirl again!"

"She just took out Croc like he was nothing!"

"Screw it! Screw it screw it screw it! I don't care what the boss says anymore! Kill her! Kill he-"

A blast of bullets assured that singular gunman he was alone on that stance, to the Bat Family's continued anger. Angel walked to The Man's unconscious body and tore off the metallic mask with a strength even she had not foreseen, freeing the temporarily disposed Croc from its clutches. Raising the torn mask, Angel caught a few seconds worth of The Seraphim commanding "Retreat! We'll finish it later, retreat!" before the sound within died out. She looked at her unconscious opponent and silently made a sign of the cross to his recovery.

Forced from the offensive, a number of The Seraphim's forces managed to escape Gotham Village that night, but between the GCPD and the family, nearly three-fourths were captured, far more than in any of their past encounters. Talk was brief with the GCPD and the three returned to their vehicles, Batman with two fingers to his ear.

"We're just finishing up. I can hardly believe it, but Batgirl might have set a new high for herself," he said. "What about on your end? …I see… Get her back to the cave then. Sooner the better."

"Everything okay?" Robin asked.

"They managed to catch up with Jason. Stephanie was injured. They don't know how badly, you guys should probably get down here. Right away."

A look of unease came across Robin's face. "Go." And he went to the Redbird, driving back towards the manor. Batman watched in his direction until he disappeared from sight before turning back to Angel. "That was… Fantastic. There really are no two ways about it."

"Thank you," she replied.

"I'm not changing my mind about what I told you… That's not what I mean by those compliments… I just feel like you deserve it. This really has changed everything for you, hasn't it?"

"Never felt better," she replied, giving him a smile. "We should go. A friend needs us."

[[Author's note: After re-evaluating some of my thoughts on the story, I actually think it's currently much closer to the final act than I had anticipated. We'll see if that's actually how things turn out, but I have opted to streamline some things, particularly because getting to the big moment of conversion felt like it took forever in hindsight and, frankly, Batman and company can only be fighting the same enemies for so long before their efficiency begins to read as questionable. I don't plan to sacrifice any quality as a result of this decision, I just think that now that the story is running, it's better to continue doing so and doing less slowing down. For the first arc, story took a backseat to characters. For this one, they'll be standing on more even ground.

And just for the heck of it, here's a tiny preview for you: The next "chapter" will be another one-shot, this one called "The Prodigal Son". I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that…