Cassandra held her cell phone to her ear as she rushed against the tide of citizens that ran from the blazing apartment. She'd already punched in her, "work" code and pushed through a call to Stephanie. After a second came an answer of, "Angel, that you? Isn't it your night off?"

"Something just happened. Building exploded." Cassandra weaved around a mother clinging to a crying baby in one arm, dragging a little girl with her other.

"What? Holy crap. Where are you?"

"Gotham Heights." Cassandra stepped out of the path of a man in a half-undone business suite and squinted at the bronze plaque on the side of the building. "Martin's Borough apartments. They're constant, several on every floor. Hear the alarm from here, but no one's come yet."

"Okay, good, then the fire department should be there soon," Stephanie said.

Cassandra opened her mouth to reply before a chorus of dog barks stole her attention. "Hear that? Not everyone can get out."

"Me and Red are on our way. Are you even wearing anything flame retardant?"

The last of the initial rush of renters was gone as Cassandra slipped into the building. "No. I'll be fine. Just hurry." She pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth and tightened the opposite ends.

"I'm working on it—don't you dare get yourself killed in there!"

Cassandra rushed down a hallway to the right of the entrance. Smoke poured out of one open door, and the high, frightened barks came from the apartment adjacent to it. After a few steps backwards, Cassandra jumped and threw a kick at the shut door. The entrance broke from its hinges, and on the other side a stout little bulldog and a tiny Yorkie barked and barked.

"Come on, go." Cassandra slipped past the broken door. The two dogs backed away from her at first, so she ran past them and gestured. "Go, stay out of the street." Now that she was behind, the dogs retreated into the hallway. Something, maybe just survival instincts, got them close to the exit, but they looked back toward her, confused. "Go!"

A moment after Cassandra shouted the command, another shout echoed from upstairs. "Hello? Is someone down there?" The voice quavered as if the speaker was elderly.

Cassandra cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Coming!" With a last dash and oversized wave she sent the two dogs running, then hurried up a staircase to her right. Just beyond the last step stood one frizzy-haired, elderly woman in a mint-green bathrobe. At her side, head down as if she was trying to stay awake, was another, rounder old woman in red, seated in a wheelchair.

"Who are—who are you?" The standing woman wheezed as she spoke. "You're just a tiny little thing, you shouldn't still be here."

"Rescuing for now." Cassandra climbed the last step. "Can you walk down?"

"I can, but Margaret can't." The woman in green laid a hand on one of the wheelchair handles. "You've got to take her first."

Cassandra looked nervously back and forth between the two. Margaret didn't even look to be aware of what was going on. And while Cassandra could easily flip opponents far larger than her in battle, this seemed a far more delicate an operation.

"You can go to our room—209—" the standing woman said. "There's a—don't know what you'd call it—like a mattress, it's under her bed. You can strap her in and slide her down."

With a nod, Cassandra pushed forward into another long hallway. After a few seconds of searching, she found and pushed open the door to 209. With the window open and no fire blazing on the second floor, she got a few gulps of half-fresh air in as she stepped inside. The air carried something else with it- the sound was faint, but Cassandra caught indistinguishable bits of yelling from a few more floors up. And, occasionally, something else, like the clash of metal. Was that just bits of the building coming apart?

As she pushed through a living room with dirty clothes strewn about, it felt like a warm wind pushed through her hair. For a second, that left her confused. The breeze came from the opposite way as the window—

"Hey, you!"

Cassandra turned toward what she hoped would be the bedrooms. From beyond the door stepped a woman a few years her senior and a few inches her taller. A black hijab covered the woman's head, and in her hands, she gripped a bright red object that looked to be a folding mattress.

"This is for the sisters down the hall, right?" She spoke with the clipped tones of a Middle-Eastern accent. "I already have it, I'm taking it to them."

For a moment, the question of why the women hadn't alluded to this one crossed Cassandra's mind. But in the rush to do all she could for those trapped within, she pushed the thought aside. "Thank you. Are there still people upstairs?"

"A few on the very top. Don't worry about them, they're rescuers too," she said. "But there's a little boy by himself, next floor up." She shook her head. "What was a kid that age doing here alone?"

"I'll go get him," Cassandra said. "Thank you for helping those two at the stairs. Can you handle them both?"

"I'm more than capable, thank you too."

With a nod, Cassandra ran back down the hallway and for the stairwell. As she passed the two that waited, she shouted, "One of your neighbors has the mattress, she's on the way!"

A call of, "Thank you," echoed upward after her, but Cassandra didn't linger on it as she rushed onto the third floor.

"Anyone here?" Almost as soon as she'd asked there came a scream from the room at the opposite end of the hallway. During Cassandra's sprint, she felt a buzz from her cell phone. "Talk, quick," she said into it.

"Don't know what you know, but there's a fight on the rooftop," Stephanie said. "I don't know who those two are but— wait, three—" She paused for a moment. "Robin's parking Redbird around back, I'm across the alleyway. Looks like the fire department is still a ways away—"

"Tell me later. Busy now." Cassandra smacked into the door open with her shoulder. She pushed into the apartment, and another shrill scream came from one corner. All of the carpet in the living room blazed and threw up a thick cloud of black smoke on her right. With the scarf held tight to her mouth, Cassandra called, "Anyone here?"

The scream that followed led her into a kitchen on the left. With watery eyes and an arm extended, Cassandra felt her way into the kitchen. A line of white broke up the brown hardwood of the room, something Cassandra only had a second to consider before she looked down. A little boy with brown skin tears in his eyes and a teddy bear hugged tight to his chest.

"Here to help." Cassandra knelt and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder.

Tiny babbles slipped from the boy mouth. Even in less dire circumstances, Cassandra probably wouldn't have readily identified his accent or the words he said. "Char, char char char," he said. "Char gin, char gin, chargin!"

When he didn't rise, Cassandra knelt and scooped up the little boy. As she rose and the boy kept repeating, "Chargin," she noted the window over the counter. Cassandra climbed up and pressed her face against the glass. It would be a short drop to the fire escape, but she'd fallen from far worse. With the sobbing boy moved to a piggybacking position, Cassandra climbed out the window.

The sound of distant car horns mixed with the nearby echoes of shouts and the clash of steel. Cassandra looked up toward the roof, confused, but nothing was visible from her angle. She remained frozen for a moment before a deep, reverberating roar followed from above. Shaken back to her senses, Cassandra swallowed hard, pulled the little boy into a better angle, and started her trek downward. The fresh air made her gag for a second before she readjusted and took in a long, deep breath. Despite all the noise and confusion, she took the steps slowly, both for the boy's sake and to recover her calm. Something was still going on above, even after the rescue, she might need to come back and deal with it.

As Cassandra reached the end of one side of the walkway, she got a look at the front of Martin's Borough again. A line of bystanders and building residents stood on the sidewalk and stared at the blazing inferno. Cassandra considered it for a moment, turned, felt her heart sink, and had to turn back. There was a rumble through the front of the lineup. Someone was pushing through, as if she intended to rush back into the building. And, even though Cassandra couldn't make out anything among the chaos, she could practically hear something like: "My girlfriend's in there! She ran in to rescue people inside, but she hasn't come out yet, you gotta let me go after her!"

Sadie made it past the would-be blockade and ran into the building. With a race in her heart, Cassandra rushed herself down the stairs as fast as her legs would carry, one hand tight on the grip of the boy on her back. She ignored his cry and ran until she reached a final ladder, climbed down far enough to decrease her drop to five feet, and released the handles. She hit the ground, set the boy down, and made for the entrance. For a moment, she caught sight of the two elderly women from the second floor, and relief washed over her. Then she redirected her attention. Someone out of the line screamed at her that everyone needed to stop running into the building, Cassandra paid it no mind over her own screams of, "Sadie! Sadie!"

Three wheezes echoed through the entryway. Then a call of, "Cassie?" came from the stairwell.

Cassandra tossed open the door and threw her arms tight around Sadie. In the midst of her hold, Cassandra's grip went tight and she said, "Stupid! Stupid thing you did!"

"I know—I know." Sadie slipped into a short coughing fit. "I'm sorry. I just—I was scared. And I thought—thought about what you would do."

Still in the midst of momentary fury, Cassandra loosened her grip and took ahold of Sadie's hand. With the thought she'd process that later, she said, "Let's go."

Before either could take a step, another muffled roar echoed down from the rooftop. A split second afterwards, the roar grew far clearer. A heavy, twisted, burned chunk of metal and plaster debris fell from the ceiling and down the stairwell.

Cassandra had time enough to yank on Sadie's arm.

But not enough to pull her out of the way. The wreckage fell and buried Sadie.

"No! God, please no!" Cassandra fell to her knees and forced it into the debris. The blazing wood and steel burned her hands, but years of burying pain returned to her as she tore at the detritus. The last time she remained in a burning building so long, she'd lost the person beneath the rubble. She didn't even love him deep down, but she still wanted to save him. As her eyes went red with tears and smog, she wiped away the wet, kept digging and throwing and, under her breath in both prayer and manta she repeated, "Please be okay, please be okay.

Two years before, Cassandra lost someone in a moment like this. Someone who didn't deserve her salvation, but she'd have given anything to protect him anyway. In the chaos, there wasn't time to dig for him. But as the wood and flames splintered and blistered her hands, she refused to stop. Sadie would be all right, Sadie had to be all right—

A pull on the debris turned Cassandra's stomach as she tossed it aside. Soot and bloody burns ran up half of Sadie's face. A stink of singed hair suggested the fires across her body hadn't all been extinguished. The way her arms bent inside her coat implied broken bones, and her quick, erratic breaths made it clear she could barely breath.

Tears in Cassandra's eyes, she clutched one of Sadie's hands with both of hers. "Please—" She needed to struggle to speak through the lump in her throat. "Please wake up."

After an agonizing second, the eye on Sadie's unburned side slowly opened halfway. "Ca—Cassie?" Her voice ran raw.

Cassandra nodded and fought back a need to scream. "Need to get out, now. Can you move?"

Sadie laid still for a moment, almost as if she didn't understand the question. Then she said, struggle in her voice, "I can't even feel anything. Anything."

"I'll drag you then." Cassandra changed her position, slipped her arms up under Sadie's armpits and heaved. More of the detritus came dislodged as she did and the pile crumbled atop Sadie's lifeless legs. Even as Cassandra slipped her free, a trail of blood oozed out from the back of her jacket and formed a trail on the floor.

"Cassie… Cassie wait." It was a strain for Sadie to force the words out, weakened by both perceived pain and a heavy heart.

"No time," Cassandra said. "We have to move."

"Cassie I can't." Sadie's voice broke and a tear streamed down her good eye. "And you need to get out."

Cassandra fought back the thoughts of, No, not again as she pled, "I'll do it myself, I can get you out."

The smashes and roars from above reached a fever pitch, screams that were indecipherable from so far down echoed throughout the building. It took most of Sadie's remaining strength to push past the block in her throat and said, "I don't want to die. But better me than both of us."

With another tug and a crack in her voice, Cassandra said, "Don't say that. Please—"

"Th… thanks. For ev… everything." Sadie uttered a weak wheeze. "It was the best." She wanted to say more, but just didn't have the strength.

Cassandra fell to her knees and cupped Sadie's face in her burned, hands, numbed with pain. "Please—" she choked out. And with a heart wracked with agony, she looked up and mumbled, "Please."

Another chunk of ceiling collapsed next to Cassandra, and this time, a scream came with it. A limp body fell down with it and came smashing against the ground. Cassandra yelped and tried to force ash from her eyes as she looked down. The man from above laid in a black bodysuit with a white vest in the center, a red cross ran down the center. Blood and scars matted his blond hair to his face and, by the way he was bent, it looked as if his back may have broken. One arm laid extended, as if in her direction, a metallic gauntlet covered the lower arm, and his hand was closed tight around something. With two bloody suddenly bodies before her, Cassandra slipped into confused, despairing shock.

After some struggle, she managed to ask, "Wha… who—"

A shimmering green light slipped between the cracks of the stranger's fingers. As it did, the broken man forced his eyes open and searched around, confused, until he settled his eyes on Cassandra. "The diamond… it's… resonating."

Cassandra stared at him, dumbstruck, until Sadie's tiny voice interrupted her train of thought with a pitiful cry of, "Go on, get out of here!"

The bloodied man on the floor looked toward Sadie for a moment before he looked back toward Cassandra. "You—young woman. Take this." He opened his hand, in the center of the destruction sat a small, black shape. Both orange light and the green glow of something within shimmered off its surface, which was crudely shaped into a cross. "You have to hurry—they can't have it—"

A booming voice echoed down from above. "Hurry up, before we need to dig it out of the rubble!"

"Please," the stranger pled. "You have been chosen. Chosen by God. Take the diamond." With some struggle, he wrenched the gauntlet off his lower arm and threw it on the ground. "Take this too. Father Zein—Father Zein will tell you the rest. But you must take it, now!"

Boots on the stairs echoed from high above. Still devastated and confused, Cassandra didn't know if it was the words or the glow that made her reach out at such a dire moment. Or maybe she was just convinced the little cross at the center called to her. She released just one hand from Sadie's grip and, with some struggle, reached over to grab it.

As soon as Cassandra's hand closed around the cross, a sense of cooling relief shot up her arm. She released it for a moment and looked at her hand. Where the cross made contact with her skin, the forming blistered had healed and vanished. Cassandra had no idea what she held or beheld, she just looked back toward the stranger, then upward again, uttered, "Thank you," and slammed the diamond into Sadie's hand.

A few twitches ran through Sadie's body. After a second, the scars and burns all over her receded until noting remained of her injuries but the green cross indented into her hand. With a groggy shake, Sadie opened glazed over eyes. "Ca… Cassie?"

The man on the floor look on, his jaw slack, before he uttered, "What have you done?"

Cassandra pulled Sadie up into another hug. With a painful heave, she said, "Thought I lost you." After a moment and a ragged breath, she broke the hug and looked Sadie in the eyes. "Need to go. For real this time." She looked back to the stranger. "You too."

"No!" His voice found power. "The Order isn't perusing you. Take my herald and run!"

Another roar reverberated from above. Still in a daze and a scratch in her voice, Sadie said, "Holy ground. We need to get me to holy ground."

After a flinch, Cassandra asked, "What?"

"No time—they can't fight you there, not at their best. We need to go, now."

"She's right," the stranger said. "Run, or it will be three bodies in here instead of two."

Cassandra opened her mouth to question or object, but, as the noises echoed from above, she decided Sadie was right. With hands held tight to one another and a daze still aparent Sadie's eyes, Cassandra ran her toward the exit.