WRITER: Dan Jurgens
PENCILER(s): Dan Jurgens
INKER(s): Norm Rapmund
COLORS: Hi-Fi Designs
LETTERS: Travis Lanham

CHARACTERS: Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter); Batman (Dick Grayson); Robin (Damian Wayne); Skeets; Rip Hunter; Black Beetle; Dr. T.O. Morrow

PLOT:
The future is saved and Booster Gold returns to the present ready for some much needed R&R and a date with a girl named Blair. But there's still the little matter of the photographs of him still left behind in the Bat-Cave. And neither Rip Hunter nor Skeets are about to let Booster go off on any dates until he can get those pictures back!

So while Booster heads to the Bat-Cave, Rip Hunter decides to continue zeroing in on the identity of the Black Beetle. Analyzing the chronal signature obtained by Skeet's scans, Hunter is able to match the signature with that of another scientist who had dabbled in the field of time travel, Dr. T.O. Morrow! By the time the two arrive at Morrow's Rocky Mountain retreat the doctor is locked in his own future-viewer contraption, nearly mad from witnessing a never-ending stream of images from that nightmarish future. Detaching the device from his face, Hunter saves the Black Beetle's shadowy mentor from an eternal torment of his own design so that he can question him about the Black Beetle's true identity.

Little does he know that Morrow is just as clueless as the rest of them. When he arrives at Morrow's lab to replenish his chronal energy supply, Black Beetle scoffs at the notion that he would ever allow Morrow in on such privileged information. He announces that he'd only been using Morrow for his viewing device and supply of chronal energy - something that he'll no longer need now that he has the Red Scarab in his possession. With a blast from his arm cannon, Beetle breaches the power core, threatening to send the entire place into meltdown! While Skeets initiates a deep scan of the Beetle's armor, a quick thinking Rip grabs the controls and shifts the core into hyper-drive. Massive waves of chronal energy beams directly into the Beetle, overwhelming him and burning him from the inside out! Rip, Skeets and Morrow all disappear via Time Sphere from the retreat before it can blow but the question remains - what did Skeets scan of the Black Beetle pick up this time?

Meanwhile, Booster arrives at the Bat-Cave minutes before Batman was due to arrive. But in his calculations he failed to account for the whereabouts of the new Robin, Damian Wayne! The young firebrand immediately attacks the intruder before Dick can arrive and settle the situation down. In order to convince Dick of his legitimacy, Booster references things that only someone who was there the day Joe Wilson died could possibly have known. His doubts lifted, Grayson has one final request for the hero that can literally go anywhere and see and do anything.

Booster agrees to take Dick Grayson on a little un-scheduled trip back through time to visit his parent's house back when they were alive. It's Christmas time and an adult Dick Grayson trudges up through the snow to the house's window. Inside he sees himself, as a young boy, happy and carefree, celebrating the holidays with his parents. And perhaps, throughout all the major changes going on with Dick's life - taking on the title of Batman, leaving behind the Nightwing persona - Dick Grayson is finally able to touch base with who he really is once more.

WRITER: Matthew Sturges
PENCILER(s): Mike Norton
INKER(s): Norm Rapamund; Mike Norton
COLORS: Guy Major
LETTERS: Travis Lanham

CHARACTERS: Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes); Brenda Del Vecchio; Paco; Black Beetle

PLOT:
Despite the time-travelling trickster's best efforts, eventually the totally mutated Blue Beetle is able to pin down the Black Beetle. There, squirming underneath the weight of Blue Beetle's tachyon force field, the Black Beetle unleashes a startling bomb shell. He claims that his true identity is actually that of a future Jaime Reyes!

Could the person smirking underneath that black helmet actually be a future version of Jaime? Could the attack on his little sister actually be the impetus of what would incite his inner rage and one day bring about the Black Beetle? Or is this just another lie like when the Beetle claimed he was Jaime's late friend Hector?

Either way, the choice is clear - he can either stay and kill the Black Beetle (and possibly kill himself in the process) or he can help his family get his little sister to a hospital so she doesn't die. Jaime of course chooses to take his sister to the hospital, but deep down inside he knows that he - not the scarab - wanted to kill the Black Beetle. And he still does. But does that make him a bad person? Or more importantly - will it?!