Angel of the Bat III: Da Pacem Domine

A Fan Fiction by MJTR

A few words to get us started: Yes, indeed, I've hit the reset button on this particular story again. Nothing I did felt like it was making the last version work, and I decided a fresher approach with more of the characters we already loved would work better. And, as someone who's finally seen so much progress on this story since making that decision, I think that's finally going to work out.

This is the third full story of a trilogy, read without partaking the first two at your own peril. The villains are new, but lingering threads from the previous two, particularly Cassandra's and religious and romantic life, will be further developed here.

For my readers, my church, and all who have given me inspiration and faith. Dedicated to my wife. Who was here at the beginning, and, against all odds, is here at the end

…

It began on a night off patrol. No kidnappings to foil or muggings to interrupt. But that didn't mean it wasn't special.

Bodies bustled in and out of the Simone Room all evening. A crowd of as many as seventy at once wasn't bad at all for one of Gotham's countless independently run art galleries. That night was Friday, March sixteenth, an exhibition night. Most of the paintings and sculptures within were by the same cadre of artists who kept the place running the rest of the year, but a few invitations made it out to friends and recommended contacts in the area. Underneath the staircase at the back of the first floor stood one such guest, a former classmate of one of the owners in town from the School of Art Institute Chicago on spring break. She leaned against the wall where a painting she'd sold an hour before used to hang. The room felt humid, her jacket was already discarded and her sleeves rolled up. The blue cravat she wore, while still fashionable in her opinion, was difficult to keep in place, and the sweat on her brow was starting to interfere with her fauxhawk. But she wasn't lingering on any of that, not when she had a prospective buyer wowing over "La Luna Lady."

"The colors are just spectacular," he said. "What do they even call that kind of green?"

"It takes a lot of watercolor mixing to get that tint," she said. "I call it 'Phantom,' it's one of my favorites, for sure."

The work depicted a young woman with a head of long, disheveled black hair standing, back turned, toward a starry night. What looked to be the dress she wore was actually dozens of luna moths arranged like tiny sequins, most hugged to her body, but a few flying away as she raised a hand, as if to gesture them off.

Her perspective customer took a last look down at the price tag and asked, "I take it this is negotiable, yes?"

Her smile didn't falter. "Maybe. How serious are you?"

"Night's starting to wind down, I'll give you two hundred for it."

He'd already tried to shave a hundred twenty bucks off the tag. She shook her head, smirk still on her face. "I gotta make a profit on each and every luna, man. How about three hundred?"

"Two fifty?"

"It's gotta be three hundred. That's it."

He let out a long, tired sigh, and then drew out his pocketbook. "Check all right?"

She considered the line, My girlfriend knows karate, if you bounce on me, she'll bounce you, just for the fun of it. But there was no need to jeopardize the sale. "Sure. Make it out to Sadie Leach."

Within minutes, La Luna Lady was gone. The Asian woman in a turquoise cocktail dress and frilly white scarf with a jacket tucked under one arm who sat nearby approached Sadie. "How much did you get?"

Sadie let her cool façade melt away, the smirk turned into an excited smile from ear to ear. "Three hundred bucks!" She let out a squeal and threw her arms around her, kissed her on the cheek, and then took hold of her hands. "You wanna go celebrate?"

"You're still displaying," her girlfriend said.

"Yeah, well, I can get somebody else to take the money if there's an interested party." She scanned the crowded room for a moment and identified the gallery's owner. "Dean! Cassie and me are gonna go celebrate, tell anybody looking to buy I'll be back in a bit, okay?"

The scruffy, chubby man she called to wasn't ever one to say much, so he raised a thumb's up. Sadie led Cassandra out of the gallery into the cool of a Gotham evening that waited outside.

"You want this?" Cassandra unfolded Sadie's suit jacket.

"Missing the rest of my punk gear about now, but yeah." Sadie released Cassandra's hand long enough to shrug into the jacket, then gripped her again. "Where you wanna go?"

"It's your sale," Cassandra said. "You pick."

"No way," Sadie said. "I treat myself when I'm back in Chicago. When I'm up here, I'm treating my girlfriend." After a moment's consideration, she amended, "Just, you know, nowhere they serve caviar. Or consider microgreens a side dish."

Both of them laughed as they proceeded down the street. Three blocks down they settled into a pair of outdoor seats at the Hounds and Company café, a peppermint coffee for Sadie, tea for Cassandra, and little ramekins of tiramisu and crème brulé shared between them.

After one especially big bite and a long pull on her coffee, Sadie sat back and let out a long, contented sigh. "Perfect. It's all perfect. I'm just disappointed Steph and Tim weren't around to see that sale go off. What were they doing again?"

Cassandra shrugged. "Something about their wedding. I don't always know."

"But you're, like, Steph's maid of honor, right? You should know that, shouldn't you?"

She smiled but shrugged again. "They didn't ask me for help with this part."

In fact, it was the other way around. Stephanie and Tim were picking up extra night shifts, since Cassandra had asked for the whole two weeks Sadie was in town for spring break off. And since she very rarely made requests at all, she almost always got them when she did.

The two sat quietly sipping at their drinks for a few minutes thereafter. Once or twice, Sadie took in another long breath and let it out, as if she felt uneasy. At the third time, Cassandra asked, "Something wrong?"

"Nah. Just thinking about stuff. Or maybe just one thing." As she spoke, Sadie reached out a leg and tapped Cassandra's foot.

"What thing?"

Sadie couldn't tell if Cassandra was actively ignoring her attempts to footsie or if she was too focused on her words. "That one thing."

"What?"

"Getting married."

Cassandra's heart skipped a beat. Sadie's already raced and she blushed, but she flashed a triumphant grin anyway.

After a moment to let it sink in, Sadie raised a hand to her mouth and went bug eyed. "Oh no, I said the M-word, didn't I?"

"Cut it out." Cassandra looked away; her face suddenly red too. "I… I just thought… I don't know. That we weren't talking about that"

Sadie extended a hand outward on the table. After a moment to conclude her intention, Cassandra put out one of her own and held it.

"I really do appreciate you giving me time and space on this—lord knows I've taken enough of it." Sadie ran a gentle thumb over Cassandra's knuckles before she raised the hand to her lips and kissed it. "I've been thinking for a while. How much I love being in Chicago, but I really can't ever wait to come back and see you? How nights like this go through my head and I think to myself, 'Yeah, I really think I could do this forever.'"

"Are you… um… are you asking—"

Sadie's looked away and her smile turned halfhearted. "No, not right this minute. I hate to say it but there's some logistical stuff we probably need to figure out first." She rubbed little circles around on Cassandra's knuckle with her thumb. "Do we just wanna have a big ceremony? We can do that anywhere. Does it matter if it's a legal thing? We'd have to go to Maine or something for that one." With a long sigh, she added, "Is it gonna mess with you going to church or whatever…"

The happy look on Cassandra's face sobered as the Sadie went over the complications. At the last one, she looked away. "A lot to consider, yes."

"Well, we don't need to figure it all out right now," Sadie said. "I mean, it's probably better I finish up school anyway, right?"

Cassandra nodded. Though she'd been stifled, the smile on her face held. In that moment, all seemed right. Aware as ever of the silver cross that hung around her neck, Cassandra silently prayed, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

For about the next ten seconds, all seemed right with the world.

Then, three floors up, an explosion burst out from the apartment building across the street. Before either woman could process what happened, two more erupted from the first and fifth floors. When the ringing in their ears started to pass, the shrill call of screams melded with fire alarm ringing took its place.

Sadie's eyes went wide. "Holy crap, what the hell is going on—" she turned to Cassandra as she rose out of her seat. "Wait a minute—no way—"

"You heard the screams. They're in danger."

"Cassie, are you insane? Someone's gonna call the fire department. They have hoses and gas masks and stuff—"

Cassandra pulled her scarf up over her nose and mouth. "I'm here now." With a last reach out and a squeeze of Sadie's hand, she said, "Trust me. I'll be right back." And ran.