DC Infinity Presents

Batgirl # 47

The Art of Destruction

Part 3

"Shattered Reflections."

Long ago, London

The creature's hands were soaked with blood. He'd just completed another hunt, another woman of 'loose morals' ended in a back alley before she even knew that she was targeted. Before her, it was a man of wealthy with unpopular opinions, and before that a small family who's sin's he still didn't fully understand.

"You've done well, my angel of the deep," said the Holy Man who gave him his orders, "you've punished the sinners, and sent them to the Almighty, who will cast them down to hell."

"If they were to be punished, why was it not done in this life?" said the Creature, trying to comprehend why it had done what it had done.

"That is not how the world works," said the self-professed Holy Man, "we only send them onto their judgment, where we can be certain that they will be cast down into eternal fires."

"The fires, I remember them…"

"Several of the creatures that make up your frame once stoked them," said the Holy Man.

"The pain they inflicted, it was beyond imagining," said the Creature, "if people knew, they would never sin."

"Why is it only in death, do they learn their truth?"

oooOOoo

Gotham, now

Cassandra saw the limp, lifeless body of Tatsu Yamashiro, and screamed without saying a word.

Cassandra's stomach lurched, the world around her spun, and the young heroine crashed to her knees.

As much as Cassandra wanted to tear her eyes away, to deny what she was seeing, instincts forged in Gotham's dark alleys forced her to stare this terrible reality in the face. She had seen too many dead bodies in her young life not to know death at a glance.

Fighting every instinct in her body, Cassandra reached out and touched Tatsu's chin. Her mother was cold to the touch, and limp like a child's doll.

A thousand emotions swelled up inside of Cassandra Cain's heart, and she fought them all. Every feeling, every thought, every reaction, she forced back down with every inch of willpower inside her breast.

On a primal level, Cassandra almost allowed herself to think that if she didn't feel, didn't react, then this couldn't be true. Then Tatsu would still be alive, with her.

Time seemed to slow to an agonizing crawl as Cassandra stared at Tatsu's body, silently begging her to awaken, to not be another part of Gotham's sordid list of victims.

"Cassandra."

Cassandra barely felt it when two powerful hands gently came down on her shoulders, and pulled her back from her mother's corpse.

"It's okay, it's okay."

Slowly, hesitantly, Cassandra looked up and saw Batman. He gently wrapped his arms around her, his cape washing over her.

"I've got you."

Only then, in the arms of her true father, did Cassandra finally have the courage to cry.

oooOOoo

Gotham, elsewhere

"Hey, kiddo, you got a sec?"

Burt Ellis thought he could almost see the gears turning in the head of Abel Thorne, known to Gotham as the Silver Shrike, before the young Enforcer nodded.

"Yes, I have time to spare," Silver Shrike replied, as he placed his spare Barretta down on his work bench.

"Good, because someone needs to talk to the boss," Ellis said, "I think the Russians were compromised. We might need to move our goods out of the safehouses, but the boss won't listen. Keeps staring at that map."

"You want me to convince him to do something different," Silver Shrike said.

"Its our last shot, and you're the best marksman we know," Bert chuckled.

"Yeah, but I have to talk to him, not shoot him," Abel said.

"Just…see if you can talk some sense into him," Bert said, "those things are going to draw some heat. Sooner we move them, the better. Just go and have some words, eh?"

"Okay," Abel said. He placed his gun down, and made his way to his uncle's study.

He found his uncle, Jacob Thorne, standing in front of a map of Gotham. It was marked with five Xs, in a pattern that reminded Abel of something.

"Uncle Jacob, Bert said we should talk," Abel said, "he thinks that we should move that stuff we bought."

"We can't move them," Jacob said, "its too important."

"Why is it too important?" said Abel.

"It's too important," Jacob Thorne said, in the exact same tone.

Abel looked at his uncle, and then the map. His eyes darted back and forth between the five safehouses.

Something about the map seemed wrong to Abel. He felt something pulling at the edge of his mind, something dark, something foul.

Abel went to his uncle's desk, and removed a pen. Tracing along the borders of the safehouse, he found that they connected in a perfect circle.

Then, acting on an instinct, Abel drew a line between one safehouse to another.

"It's too important," Jacob Thorne said, unprompted.

"Boss?" Bert knocked on the door, as he let himself in, "you guys talk?"

"It's too important," Jacob Thorne said again.

Bert and Abel exchanged a look.

"I don't think I did any good," Abel said.

"Well, you made that map he was staring at creepier," Bert said.

"Why'd you draw a pentagram on it?"

oooOOoo

Gotham Memorial Hospital, Morgue

No one recognized the man who accompanied the body. Officially, the body was labeled 'Jane Doe'. But the paperwork was accompanied by a special code indicating that it was only to be handled by authorized officials at a later date.

They didn't gave it much thought when a man with an impressive build, badge and mustache showed up, flashed the proper paperwork and asked for a few minutes of privacy with the body. The staff figured he was an anxious Fed, or connected cop. They cleared the room, and allowed him a few moments.

Bruce Wayne looked down at the cold body of Tatsu Yamashiro, and found himself blinking back tears.

Bruce Wayne was no stranger to death, not by any measures. And he and Tatsu were not as close as he would have liked. They fought and bled besides one another, and there was perhaps no other Outsider Batman shared a better understanding of their own mortality than her. Had circumstances been different, he would have mourned, certainly, but it would have been easier, cleaner to accept than now.

"When Cassandra first came to me, and for too long after, I allowed her to be consumed by the mission," Bruce said, "but I think a part of me wasn't certain that I could teach her how to be her own person, how to live in society. Even without my wealth…"

Bruce Wayne cast his eyes to the floor.

"All the disguises, all the lies, all the deception, sometimes it feels as if I'm just going through the motions," Bruce said, "loss defined my life before it could truly begin. I responded by wrapping myself in armor, forging my life into being the perfect weapon. But when it came to Cassandra, I realized that I had little idea how to do the reverse, how to turn a weapon into a full, actual person."

"I could show her the road, but I couldn't walk it with her," Bruce said, "she'd see my weaknesses. But I knew you could lead her to a full life, because you had one before this one. Whatever happens, I swear to you this, Cassandra will not end up like me.

"You have my word."

oooOOoo

Cassandra was no stranger to pain, but for what she felt now, pain was too small a word.

Her throat was dry, her heart hammering and though Cassandra could barely think, it felt as if her entire world were nothing of a void.

Cassandra could hear the words of people outside the door on occasion, but nothing pierced the hurricane of pain swirling through her heart.

"Cassandra? Honey? Can we talk?"

Barbara Gordon-Grayson bit her lip as she tapped on her guest room door. She prayed that Cassandra would invite her in. As much as she wanted to simply go inside, Barbara knew how Cassandra would react. She would draw deeper, and quieter, into herself.

But as the minutes passed, Barbara knew that she had received her answer.

"Mrs. Gordon?"

Barbara tore her eyes away from the door.

"Hey Connor," Barbara said, "are you about ready to leave?"

"No, actually," Connor said, "Dinah told me what happened. I thought I could talk to Cassandra, I've been through what she's going through now."

Barbara gave Connor a sad smile, "You're welcome to try. But I'm afraid she's not much of a talker under the best of times."

"I have time," Connor said, "I've informed Batman that I won't be part of the mission. I think I'm needed more here."

"Good luck," Barbara said. She cast one last glance at the door, before leaving.

Connor stood outside the door. He could sense Cassandra inside, just as he knew that she could sense him. As skilled as they were, it was just instinct.

So rather than knock on the door, Connor instead sat next to the door, lotus style. Cassandra would emerge in her own time, and when she did, if she needed him, Connor would be there.

And if she didn't, she didn't. But Connor would prefer to err on the side of empathy.

oooOOoo

Gotham, elsewhere.

"How long is this going to take?" Dinah Lance, Black Canary said. She, Batman, Huntress and Thunder were on the roof of a building, across from the first of Thorne's safehouse.

"Ideally, minutes," Batman said, "but as long as it takes. I want to get back to Cassandra too, but the longer these weapons in the wrong hands, the worse it will be."

"Personally, I'd like to stay in Gotham long enough to catch up with some old friends and students," Huntress said, "I don't know why I agreed to join Checkmate."

"Because you've saved, on average, two dozen men and women more in one month than you saved in six in Gotham," replied Batman, "you carry a rial in your right pouch from the girl you saved six weeks as a memento."

"Aww, that's so sweet," Thunder said to Huntress, then turned to Batman, "and it's so creepy than you know that."

"Noted. The building's empty of civilians," Batman said, "Thunder, Canary, you know what to do."

Black Canary lined up behind Thunder.

"Okay," Thunder inserted specially designed earplugs, "time for the world's loudest combo move. Wait for me to jump, Canary."

Thunder held up her right hand, palm open. She broke into a dead run. Thunder clenched her fist just as he leapt into the air. Waves of sonic energy struck her like a wave, washing over her and lifting her up into the air.

Thunder smashed into the building like a missile, breaking through steel reinforced concrete as if it were tissue paper.

"Wow," Huntress said, "never thought I'd see Batman using a meta-human like that in Gotham."

"I've no desire to drag this out," said Batman. He fired a grappling line, "lets get this over with."

As they approached, Batman found his unease growing. He had brought Thunder along for both muscle and distraction. With the ability to alter her mass, bullets were a non-issue to her. Not that Gotham criminals knew that. Batman expected them to empty their clips at Thunder, making sweeping up easy.

But he heard no gunfire, no sounds of conflict. Thunder's entry was every bit as loud and obvious as her namesake, yet he could detect no sounds of conflict.

Inside of two minutes, Batman, Black Canary and Huntress had repelled down into the basement of the building.

"Thunder?" Black Canary swept her eyes over the rubble, "Thunder, where are you?"

"She's fine."

The three spun around, and saw Thunder laying unconscious on the ground. Standing over her was a man in chitinous, ebony armor.

"Batman, you've returned to Gotham, I see. A sign of symmetry, do you think?"

"Batman, who is this?" said Huntress.

"Crazy Quilt," replied Batman.

"We met the once," Crazy Quilt said, "and you remember. I'm flattered."

Batman observed several mystic artifacts behind Crazy Quilt, radiating with power.

"A good way to start eternity."

oooOOooo

The earth shook beneath Cassandra, briefly drawing her attention away from the pulsating void inside of her. Something tugged at the back of her skull, and for reasons she couldn't explain, she made her way to the window.

Cassandra drew back the curtains, and was bathed in an orange light. In the distance, she saw a column of orange flame shooting into the air, as wide as an entire city block.

For a moment, confusion pushed aside grief, as she tried to understand what was happening. The column of flame doubled, then tripled in size, and before Cassandra even knew what was happening, flames swept over her, and all of Gotham.

Next issue: It's all been building to this! At her lowest point, Cassandra must fight for all of Gotham!

Notes: Anyone remember Crazy Quilt? Read the third issue. It has been a while 😉